Word.ws English Dictionary

superior

Syllables: su·per·i·orUK/suːˈpɪə.ɹi.ə//sʊˈpɪɹ.i.ɚ/

superior adjective: higher in rank, status, or quality.

Adjective

superior (comparative more superior, superlative most superior)

  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.
    • 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...1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC
    1. Of high standard or quality.
      • 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.1905, E. M. Forster, Where Angels Fear to Tread, chapter 3
    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.
      • There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy […]than a brave man superior to his sufferings.1711 December 11 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, December 1, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 237; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a...
    4. Greater or better than average.
  2. Courageously or serenely indifferent (as to something painful or disheartening).
  3. 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
    1. Located above or higher, a direction that in humans corresponds to cephalad.
    2. (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.
    3. (of an ovary) Above and free from the other floral organs.
    4. Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem.
    5. (of the radicle) Pointing toward the apex of the fruit.
  5. More comprehensive.
    • A genus is superior to a species.
  6. Affecting or assuming an air of superiority.
    Synonyms:
    supercilious
  7. Having a wider orbit around the Sun; typically with respect to the Earth.

Noun

superior (plural superiors)

  1. The senior person in a monastic community.
    Synonyms:
    overling
  2. The head of certain religious institutions and colleges.
    Synonyms:
    overling
  3. A superior letter, figure, or symbol.
    Synonyms:
    superscript
  4. (historical, Scots law) 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.

Proper noun capitalized: Superior

Superior

  1. A town in Pinal County, Arizona.
  2. A statutory town in Boulder County, Colorado.
  3. An unincorporated community in Raccoon Township, Parke County, Indiana.
  4. A minor city in Dickinson County, Iowa.
  5. A township in Chippewa County, Michigan.
  6. A township and unincorporated community therein, in Washtenaw County, Michigan.
  7. A town, the county seat of Mineral County, Montana.
  8. A small city in Nuckolls County, Nebraska.
  9. An unincorporated community in McDowell County, West Virginia.
  10. A city, village, and civil town in Wisconsin. The city is the county seat of Douglas County.
  11. A town in Sweetwater County, Wyoming.
  12. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Lake Superior.
  13. (abbreviation, ellipsis) Ellipsis of Superior Craton.
  14. Synonym of Superia.
    Synonyms:
    Superia

superior meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Sanskrit

superior in Hindi

higher in rank or quality
श्रेष्ठ śreṣṭh
located above
सर्वोच्च sarvocc
extraordinary
उत्कृष्ट utkŕṣṭ
person of higher rank
श्रेष्ठ śreṣṭh

superior in Tamil

உயர்ந்தவர், மேலானவர்

superior in Malayalam

ശ്രേഷ്ഠൻ

superior in Sanskrit

higher in rank or quality
उत्तर uttara, श्रेयस् śreyas
located above
उत्तर uttara
More languagesFewer languages
superior in Arabic
أَجْدَر ʔajdar, مُتَفَوِّق mutafawwiq, يعلو

Examples of superior in a sentence

  • There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
  • Additionally, reliability proved to be superior to NBL's design, with an average of 120,000 miles run during 1959.2022 January 12, David Clough, “From Germany with love: a Warship perspective”, in RAIL, number 948, page 46:

All 40 example sentences with superior

Synonyms of superior

8 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of superior

Forms of superior

Adjective
comparativemore superior
superlativemost superior
alternative UK (obsolete)superiour
Noun
pluralsuperiors

Plural of superior: superiors

Origin of superior

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

Words formed from superior

Phrases with superior

25 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with superior

41 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about superior

What does superior mean?
Superior means higher in rank, status, or quality.
What is superior in Hindi?
Superior in Hindi is श्रेष्ठ (śreṣṭh), सर्वोच्च (sarvocc), उत्कृष्ट (utkŕṣṭ). See Superior meaning in Hindi.
How do you use superior in a sentence?
There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people.
What part of speech is superior?
Superior can be an adjective, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce superior?
Superior is pronounced /suːˈpɪə.ɹi.ə/ (UK).

Words near superior in the dictionary

  1. superioinferior
  2. superion
  3. superionic
  4. superionicity
  5. superions
  6. superior
  7. superior alveolar nerve
  8. superior alveolar nerves
  9. superior auricular muscle
  10. superior auricular muscles
  11. superior autobiographical memories

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: superior (page history and authors); Superior (page history and authors); superior (Tamil, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); superior (Malayalam, 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:

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

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