Inferior

//ɪnˈfɪə.ɹi.ə// adj, noun

adj, noun ·Very common ·Middle school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A person of lower rank, stature, or ability to another.

    "As you are my inferior, I can tell you to do anything I want."

  2. 2
    a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character wordnet
  3. 3
    An inferior letter, figure, or symbol.
  4. 4
    one of lesser rank or station or quality wordnet
Adjective
  1. 1
    Lower in rank, status, or quality.

    "Anna had always felt inferior to her brother due to poor school grades."

  2. 2
    Lower in rank, status, or quality.; Of low rank, standard or quality.

    "an inferior officer"

  3. 3
    Lower in rank, status, or quality.; (of a court or tribunal) Susceptible to having its decisions overturned by a higher court.
  4. 4
    Lower in rank, status, or quality.; Denoting goods or services which are in greater demand during a recession than in a boom, for example second-hand clothes.
  5. 5
    Located below:; Situated further below (another part of the body), a direction that in humans corresponds to caudad.
Show 6 more definitions
  1. 6
    Located below:; Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body.
  2. 7
    Located below:; Situated below some other organ (said of a calyx when free from the ovary, and therefore below it, or of an ovary with an adherent and therefore inferior calyx).
  3. 8
    Located below:; On the side of a flower which is next to the bract.
  4. 9
    Located below:; Printed in subscript.

    "an inferior figure or letter"

  5. 10
    Located below:; Below the horizon.

    "the inferior part of a meridian"

  6. 11
    Nearer to the Sun than the Earth is.

    "the inferior or interior planets"

Adjective
  1. 1
    falling short of some prescribed norm wordnet
  2. 2
    of or characteristic of low rank or importance wordnet
  3. 3
    of low or inferior quality wordnet
  4. 4
    having an orbit between the sun and the Earth's orbit wordnet
  5. 5
    written or printed below and to one side of another character wordnet
Show 1 more definition
  1. 6
    lower than a given reference point wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
badbasecoarsehumbleindifferentless

Example

More examples

"I think this one is inferior to that in quality."

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).

Related phrases

Peover Inferioranterior inferior cerebellar arteryinferior alveolar arteryinferior alveolar nerveinferior cervical ganglioninferior colliculusinferior conchainferior courtinferior dental arteryinferior ganglioninferior goodinferior hypophyseal artery

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.