Meaning of inferior in English

Table of contents

Classifying Adjective
inferior
Definitions
1. inferior in rank or status
Examples
- « the junior faculty »
- « a lowly corporal »
- « petty officialdom »
- « a subordinate functionary »
Synonyms
- junior
2. lower than a given reference point
Examples
- « inferior alveolar artery »
Synonyms
- bottom(a)
3. falling short of some prescribed norm
Examples
- « substandard housing »
Synonyms
- nonstandard
Noun
inferior
Definitions
1. one of lesser rank or station or quality
Antonyms
2. a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character
Antonyms
- superscript
- superior
Qualitative Adjective
inferior
Etymology
late Middle English (in inferior (sense 2 of the adjective)): from Latin, comparative of inferus‘low’
Definitions
1. of or characteristic of low rank or importance
Synonyms
Antonyms
- superior
2. of low or inferior quality
Synonyms
Antonyms
- superior
3. written or printed below and to one side of another character
Antonyms
4. having an orbit between the sun and the Earth's orbit
Examples
- « Mercury and Venus are inferior planets »
Antonyms
- superior

Famous quotes

« I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex. »
Katharine Hepburn
« The very idea of marriage is basic to recognition as equals in our society any status short of that is inferior, unjust, and unconstitutional. »
Ted Olson
« Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower. »
Alan Kay
« Society, being codified by man, decrees that woman is inferior she can do away with this inferiority only by destroying the male's superiority. »
Simone de Beauvoir
« But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response? »
Robert Kennedy