irrelevant

/ɪˈrɛlɪvɪnt/

/ɪˈrɛləvənt/

If you're talking about hockey and someone keeps trying to mention football, you might describe their comments as irrelevant. Irrelevant means not related to the subject at hand.

If a rock star becomes irrelevant, it means people are not relating––or even listening––to his music anymore. It isn't part of what people are thinking or talking about. The opposite is relevant, meaning related. An analysis of brush strokes in Manet's painting would be relevant to a discussion of texture in painting in general. Relevant was borrowed from Medieval Latin relevare "to bear upon," from Latin, "to lift up." The prefix ir-, meaning "not," is a variant of in- before words that begin with the letter r.

Definitions of irrelevant

1. adjective

   having no bearing on or connection with the subject at issue
   “an irrelevant comment”

   “irrelevant allegations”

   synonyms:

   digressive, tangential

   of superficial relevance if any

   extraneous, immaterial, impertinent, orthogonal

   not pertinent to the matter under consideration

   inapplicable, unsuitable

   not capable of being applied

   moot

   of no legal significance (as having been previously decided)

   antonyms:

   relevant

   having a bearing on or connection with the subject at issue

   applicable

   capable of being applied; having relevance

   germane

   relevant and appropriate

   pertinent

   having precise or logical relevance to the matter at hand