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redundancy

re-DUN-dun-see /rɪˈdʌndənsi/

nounC1GMATIELTSUPSC

technicalbusinessengineering

The inclusion of extra components which are not strictly necessary to functioning, in case of failure of other components.

In disaster management, redundancy is a good thing (backups); in business, it often refers to 'layoffs' (extra people).

The story behind the word. From the Latin 're-' (again/back) and 'undare' (to surge/wave). It literally means to 'overflow like a wave'. If you have redundancy, you have so much of something that it's spilling over—which is exactly what you want when your primary system fails.

Word relationships

surplus: An amount of something left over when requirements have been met.
duplication: The action of making a copy or double of something.

scarcity: The state of being scarce or in short supply; shortage.
efficiency: The state or quality of being efficient, often by removing 'extra' parts.

Commonly confused with

efficiency: Efficiency tries to remove 'extra' parts to save cost; redundancy adds 'extra' parts to save the system.

Word family

redundant (adjective): Not or no longer needed or useful; superfluous.

Collocations

built-in redundancy
system redundancy
structural redundancy
redundancy measures

Example sentences

"The aircraft's flight control system has triple redundancy to ensure safety in the event of a hardware failure." Aerospace Engineering
"Data redundancy is a common strategy to prevent information loss during a server crash." Data Management

Memory hook

Think of a 'Redundant' backup: it's 'Done' again ('Re-Done') just in case. Redundancy is having a 'spare tire' for your system.

When not to use

Be careful in a business context; saying 'we need more redundancy' might be misinterpreted as wanting to fire people.

Fun facts

In linguistics, 'pleonasm' is a form of redundancy, like saying 'black darkness' or 'burning fire'.
SpaceX rockets use 'engine redundancy' so they can still reach orbit even if one engine fails.