superficial

Syllables: sup·er·fi·cialUK/ˌsuːpəˈfɪʃəl//ˌsupɚˈfɪʃəl/

superficial adjective: existing, occurring, or located on the surface.

Adjective

superficial (comparative more superficial, superlative most superficial)

(relational) Existing, occurring, or located on the surface.

Synonyms:

surficial
1. (often, relational) Close to the surface of the body; especially, situated or occurring on the skin or immediately beneath it.
  - superficial muscles
  - The epidermis is superficial to the subcutis.
Appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely.

Synonyms:

external
Not thorough, deep, or complete; concerned only with the obvious or apparent.
- Secondly, I continue to base my concepts on intensive study of a limited suite of collections, rather than superficial study of every packet that comes to hand.1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, page vii
Synonyms:

cursory, facile, sketchy, glib, skin-deep, smattering, surface-level

Antonyms:

in-depth, thorough
1. Lacking depth of character or understanding; lacking substance or significance.
  - These infamous little green men appeared during the decisive seizures or buildings and facilities, only to disappear when associated militias and local troops arrived to consolidate the gains. In this way they provided a measure of deniability—however superficial or implausible—for Moscow.⁴⁰2014, "Little Green Men": A Primer on Modern Russian Unconventional Warfare, Ukraine 2013–2014, Fort Bragg, North Carolina: The United States Army Special Operations Command, page 43
(rare) Two-dimensional; drawn on a flat surface.
(UK) Denoting a quantity of a material expressed in terms of area covered rather than linear dimension or volume.
- one superficial foot
Synonyms:

square

Noun

superficial (plural superficials)

(plural-normally) A surface detail.
- He always concentrates on the superficials and fails to see the real issue.

superficial meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

superficial in Hindi

existing or located on the surface: सतही sathī
on or immediately beneath the skin: सतही sathī
lacking understanding or substance: सतही sathī

superficial in Tamil

மேலோட்டமான

superficial in Urdu

superficial: سطحی sathī

superficial in Bengali

lacking understanding or substance: উদাসীন udaśin

More languagesFewer languages

superficial in Malayalam: ഉപരിതലസ്പർശിയായ
superficial in Kannada: ಮೇಲುಮೇಲಣ, ಮೇಲೆ ತೋರುವ, ಹೊರಗಣ, ಬಾಹ್ಯ
superficial in Punjabi: ਓਪਰਾ oprā
superficial in Gujarati: સુપરફિસિયલ
superficial in Odia: ଉପରିପାର୍ଶ୍ୱିକ
superficial in Arabic: سَطْحِيّ saṭḥiyy

Examples of superficial in a sentence

Redness and swelling are associated with certain superficial infections.
In superficial mycoses infection is localised to the skin, the hair, and the nails. An example is ringworm or tinea, an infection of the skin by a dermatophyte.
This logic exposes the segregationist intent of tuition grants beneath the superficial color blindness.

All 40 example sentences with superficial

Synonyms of superficial

1 more synonymsFewer synonyms

square

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of superficial

Forms of superficial

Adjective
comparative	more superficial
superlative	most superficial
Noun
plural	superficials

Origin of superficial

Borrowing from Late Latin superficiālis (“of or belonging to the surface”), from superficiēs (“top, surface”) + -ālis (“-al”, adjectival suffix).

Words formed from superficial

Phrases with superficial

Words that rhyme with superficial

16 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about superficial

What does superficial mean?: Superficial means existing, occurring, or located on the surface.
What is superficial in Hindi?: Superficial in Hindi is सतही (sathī). See Superficial meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is superficial?: Superficial can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce superficial?: Superficial is pronounced /ˌsuːpəˈfɪʃəl/ (UK).

Words near superficial in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: superficial (page history and authors); superficial (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); سطحی (Urdu) (page history and authors); superficial (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); superficial (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਓਪਰਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); superficial (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); superficial (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-superficial.ogg.

Cite this entry: “superficial.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/superficial. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.