多余 (duō yú) — superfluous, unnecessary, redundant | TongTong Chinese Dictionary

Definition

多余 means 'unnecessary / superfluous' — it judges a thing itself as not needed, while 过分 judges a behavior as going too far. 累赘 adds a sense of being cumbersome or wordy.

superfluousunnecessaryredundant

Examples

多余，。
Zhè xiē xìn xī dōu shì duō yú de, nǐ bù xū yào dān xīn.
All this information is superfluous; you don't need to worry.
。
Tā jué de zì jǐ de huà hěn duō yú.
He feels his words are very unnecessary.
多余。
Xiě wén zhāng shí jǐn liàng qù diào duō yú de bù fen.
When writing an article, try to remove the superfluous parts.

Origin

Compound word

构词法gòucífǎ

联合liánhéCoordinate

Two parts of equal weight, alike or opposite in meaning, standing side by side.

余yúsurplus

多 and 余 both point to excess, so 多余 means surplus or unnecessary.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

多 originally showed two pieces of meat placed together; the repeated meat shape gives the sense of many.

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 餘; 余 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

Sound part声符shēngfú

余

余yú餘Yú

Same sound today

The traditional form 餘 pairs 食 (food) with 余 as its sound part; the simplified 余 is a later abbreviation.

Appears in

HSK 3.0 Level 6 HSK 2.0 Level 5 Good & Bad

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