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superior

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: Superior

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English, borrowed from Old French superiour, from Latin superior (“higher, upper”).

Pronunciation

Adjective

superior (not comparable)

  1. Higher in rank, status, or quality.
    Rebecca had always thought shorts were far superior to pants, as they didn't constantly make her legs itch.
    • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
      There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.
    • 2022 January 12, David Clough, “From Germany with love: a Warship perspective”, in RAIL, number 948, page 46:
      Additionally, reliability proved to be superior to NBL's design, with an average of 120,000 miles run during 1959.
    1. Of high standard or quality.
      • 1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread , chapter 3:
        She always treated (her husband) as a boy, which he was, and as a fool, which he was not, thinking herself so immeasurably superior to him that she neglected opportunity after opportunity of establishing her rule.
    2. Greater in size or power.
    3. (superior to) Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by.
    4. Greater or better than average.
      Synonym: extraordinary
  2. Courageously or serenely indifferent (as to something painful or disheartening).
  3. (typography) Printed in superscript.
    a superior figure or letter
  4. Located above or out; higher in position.
    the superior jaw; the superior part of an image
    2. (anatomy, medicine) Located above or higher, a direction that in humans corresponds to cephalad.
    3. (botany) (of a calyx) Above the ovary; said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part.
    4. (botany) (of an ovary) Above and free from the other floral organs.
    5. (botany) Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem.
      Synonym: posterior
    6. (botany) (of the radicle) Pointing toward the apex of the fruit.
      Synonym: ascending
  5. (taxonomy) More comprehensive.
    A genus is superior to a species.
  6. Affecting or assuming an air of superiority.
    Synonym: supercilious
  7. (astronomy, of a planet in the Solar System) Having a wider orbit around the Sun; typically with respect to the Earth.

Usage notes

Antonyms

Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

Translations

Noun

superior (plural superiors)

  1. A person of higher rank or quality, especially a colleague in a higher position.
    Synonym: overling
    1. The senior person in a monastic community.
    2. The head of certain religious institutions and colleges.
      Hyponyms: father superior, mother superior
  2. (printing) A superior letter, figure, or symbol.
    Synonym: superscript
  3. (Scots law, historical) One who has made an original grant of heritable property to a tenant or vassal, on condition of a certain annual payment (feu duty) or of the performance of certain services.

Translations

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