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Inferior
//ɪnˈfɪə.ɹi.ə// adj, noun
Definitions
Adjective
- 1 Lower in rank, status, or quality.
"Anna had always felt inferior to her brother due to poor school grades."
- 2 Lower in rank, status, or quality.; Of low rank, standard or quality.
"an inferior officer"
- 3 Lower in rank, status, or quality.; (of a court or tribunal) Susceptible to having its decisions overturned by a higher court.
- 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 Located below:; Situated further below (another part of the body), a direction that in humans corresponds to caudad.
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- 6 Located below:; Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body.
- 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).
- 8 Located below:; On the side of a flower which is next to the bract.
- 9 Located below:; Printed in subscript.
"an inferior figure or letter"
- 10 Located below:; Below the horizon.
"the inferior part of a meridian"
- 11 Nearer to the Sun than the Earth is.
"the inferior or interior planets"
Adjective
- 1 falling short of some prescribed norm wordnet
- 2 of or characteristic of low rank or importance wordnet
- 3 of low or inferior quality wordnet
- 4 having an orbit between the sun and the Earth's orbit wordnet
- 5 written or printed below and to one side of another character wordnet
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- 6 lower than a given reference point wordnet
Noun
- 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 a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character wordnet
- 3 An inferior letter, figure, or symbol.
- 4 one of lesser rank or station or quality wordnet
Etymology
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).
See also for "inferior"
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