irrelevantir‧rel‧e‧vant /ɪˈreləvənt/ ●●○ AWL adjective 
We’re focussing too much on irrelevant details. Students viewed Latin as boring and irrelevant.largely/totally/completely etc irrelevant His age is completely irrelevant if he can do the job.irrelevant to The defendant’s lawyer argued that his past offenses were irrelevant to this case.—irrelevantly adverb
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER DICTIONARIES
- "But I didn't know it was illegal to park here.'' "That's completely irrelevant.''
- Chris continued to annoy her with questions on totally irrelevant subjects.
- To many young people, the church seems outdated and irrelevant to modern times.
- It is irrelevant to the Purchaser whether or not the Vendors know the warranties are right or wrong so long as they accept the risk.
- Most Contemporaries will not make the transition; they will merely become dated and irrelevant and will eventually go out of print.
- Reinforced concrete is an example, and is not as irrelevant to motorised transport as you might think.
- That the environment is not animate enough to want to communicate with us is irrelevant.
- The proposals in this Gracious Speech are either irrelevant or positively damaging to the raising of school standards.
- This is not to say that power in organizations has become so diffuse and fleeting that it is irrelevant.
- What is striking about these undoubtedly well-meaning suggestions is how irrelevant most are to the actual crisis of transmission.
Longman Language Activatornot connected with the subject you are talking about
· Chris continued to annoy her with questions on totally irrelevant subjects.· "But I didn't know it was illegal to park here.'' "That's completely irrelevant.''irrelevant to · To many young people, the church seems outdated and irrelevant to modern times.
spoken say this when you think that what someone has said does not have any real connection with what you are arguing about: · "Is she married or single?" "That's completely beside the point - the question is, does she have the ability to do the job?"
if something has nothing to do with a subject, it is not connected with it in any way: · My back was bothering me a little bit, but that had nothing to do with how badly I played.· I don't know what's the matter with Billy -- he says it's nothing to do with school.· My father was a remote figure who had nothing to do with my everyday life.
British spoken /what does that have to do with ...? especially American, spoken say this when someone has mentioned something and you cannot understand how it is connected with the subject you are talking about: · I realize you didn't get home until after midnight but what does that have to do with coming in late for work?
spoken say this about something that someone has mentioned that does not influence or affect what you are talking about: · Whether the applicant is a man or a woman doesn't come into it.· I'm afraid this is company policy, and your own views on the matter simply don't enter into it.
spoken say this when someone has mentioned something that they think is important but you do not agree: · What I think about your husband is neither here nor there.· It's true we're not friends but that's neither here nor there. We're still able to work together.
if something has no bearing on the situation that you are talking about, it does not affect that situation or help to explain it: · The president's age has no bearing on whether or not I will vote for him.· A suspect's previous criminal record should have no bearing on the trial.
facts or information that are not connected with the subject that is being discussed or considered, and take people's attention away from what is really important: · Concerns about the cost of the project are a red herring.
COLLOCATIONS FROM THE ENTRY His age is completely irrelevant if he can do the job.COLLOCATIONS FROM THE CORPUSADVERB
His age is completely irrelevant if he can do the job.· Disgraceful, if true; but almost irrelevant.· The gay aspects of the story are almost irrelevant.· Whether the tape said to be in the possession of a national newspaper is genuine or not seemed last night almost irrelevant.· To me, the top Teamster officers seem disconnected from the Teamsters, almost irrelevant to it.· In a world where guns are readily available, decommissioning is almost irrelevant, having only a symbolic meaning.· In any event, according to Bethe, the test had become almost irrelevant by that time.· The fact that we create the artwork electronically is almost irrelevant - it's the words that really count.· But his part in the proceedings had been made almost irrelevant.
· The civil service and institutions based on this style see feeling as irrelevant in work performance.· For years, I tried to fathom the mentality that simply waves off concern about the cost of regulations as irrelevant.· Today, the argument goes, old-fashioned barriers separating countries, and even continents, are as irrelevant as the Berlin Wall.· Because of this statistics are often dismissed as irrelevant or to be left to specialists.· The gender of a subject is treated as irrelevant, unless it is under specific investigation.· It retreats into the ghetto and dismisses the work of the historian as irrelevant to its needs.· Yet one would hesitate to describe these lines as irrelevant.· Scientists for their part have tended to consider the layman's admiration as their right and the real world as irrelevant.
· What puzzles a philosopher and taxes his mind to distraction may look completely irrelevant or quite obvious to a businessman.· U., studying some arcane subject that turned out to be completely irrelevant.· Trust me to find the completely irrelevant question.· Is it a completely irrelevant coincidence that almost every person who makes large sums of money dresses up when they do business?· Psychology has recently gained the respectability it should always have had with respect to pain, for two completely irrelevant reasons.· The pages of the draft speech lay beside him, unattended, unimproved, and now completely irrelevant.· His political views, however, were presumably not completely irrelevant.· He's completely irrelevant to my life, and he always will be.
· The Giral government, consisting entirely as it did of bourgeois Republicans, was increasingly irrelevant to the new situation.· But that is an increasingly irrelevant justification for present attitudes.· Blocs are being seen as increasingly irrelevant today largely because the global capitalist system is perceived as increasingly salient.· Parliament and party became increasingly irrelevant, and trade unions and employers' associations came into positions of political prominence.· The revolutionary intelligentsia seemed doomed to doctrinaire squabbles over increasingly irrelevant issues.· Not only will human goodness be unable to operate effectively on such a system: it will become increasingly irrelevant to it.
· The identity of the genitor in such cases is largely irrelevant.· The comfort, or lack of it, at training camp is largely irrelevant.· Where obligation is the key, policy is largely irrelevant.· The precise timing of this process is largely irrelevant.· By the late 1980s, debates surrounding the rate question became largely irrelevant.· If films have little peripheral information in them then it may be that memory for such information is largely irrelevant.· From the child's viewpoint arguments over management are largely irrelevant.· Men are now recruited into a national labour pool and their home base is largely irrelevant to where they take ships.
· And compared with so self-evident a need, the matter of where the money was to come from was quite irrelevant.· A testimony may be fascinating but at the same time quite irrelevant to the basic questions touching on faith and doubt.· The fact that it was much pleasanter doing things for John was really quite irrelevant.· The thrust and strain which has dominated these twenty-five years now seems quite irrelevant.
· Think what a clutter there would be if your mind were filled with sights which were totally irrelevant to you!· As l have just remarked, the particular physical embodiment of an algorithm is something totally irrelevant.· Political and nationalistic considerations are totally irrelevant.· The fact that Niall Grant was a very attractive man was totally irrelevant.· It was pathetically inadequate for the poor and totally irrelevant for everyone else.· Whether or not that helps to fill church pews is totally irrelevant.· They have accorded it blind respect while considering it totally irrelevant to the real world.
NOUN· This, the court said, was an irrelevant consideration which rendered his decision unlawful.· This does not mean, however, that the effects of competition are always an irrelevant consideration.· That it assaults the reputation of one outside the House is an incidental and irrelevant consideration.
WORD FAMILYnounrelevance ≠ irrelevanceadjectiverelevant ≠ irrelevantadverbrelevantly ≠ irrelevantly
not useful or not relating to a particular situation, and therefore not important OPP relevant: We’re focussing too much on irrelevant details. Students viewed Latin as boring and irrelevant.largely/totally/completely etc irrelevant His age is completely irrelevant if he can do the job.irrelevant to The defendant’s lawyer argued that his past offenses were irrelevant to this case.—irrelevantly adverb