inferior

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Low or lower in order, degree, or rank: Captain is an inferior rank to major.
2. adj. Low or lower in quality, value, or estimation: inferior craft; felt inferior to his older sibling.
3. adj. Second-rate; poor: an inferior translation.
4. adj. Situated under or beneath.
5. adj. Botany Located below the perianth and other floral parts. Used of an ovary.
6. adj. Anatomy Located beneath or directed downward.
7. adj. Printing Set below the normal line of type; subscript.
8. adj. Astronomy Orbiting between Earth and the sun: Mercury is an inferior planet.
9. adj. Astronomy Lying below the horizon.
10. n. A person lower in rank, status, or accomplishment than another.
11. n. Printing An inferior character, such as the number 2 in CO₂.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Lower in space; situated below or in a lower position; subjacent: as, the inferior maxillary bone; the inferior limb of the moon.
2. Lower in grade or in any scale of reckoning; less important or valuable; of smaller consideration; subordinate: as, goods of inferior quality; a man of inferior rank.
3. In botany, growing below some other organ. An inferior calyx is one that is inserted below the ovary, or free; an inferior ovary is one with adnate or superior calyx. Compare superior.
4. In astronomy: Situated or occurring between the earth and the sun: as, the inferior planets; an inferior conjunction of Mercury and Venus.
5. Lying below the horizon: as, the inferior part of a meridian.
6. 5 In music, lower in pitch.
7. In entomology, pertaining to the lower or ventral surface of an insect; below; nearer the ventral surface than other parts.
8. In printing, occupying the lower part of the shank of the type; standing below other type in the same line: as, the inferior figures used in chemical notation.
9. A court the proceedings or determinations of which are subject to the supervision or review of another court, of general jurisdiction, of the same state. Few phrases in law are more indeterminate than this. It is a well-settled maxim that jurisdiction is presumed in favor of the proceedings of superior, but not those of inferior, courts. The rule originated in England, where the courts of Chancery, Queen's (or King's) Bench, Common Pleas, and Exchequer, all having an ancient common-law existence, and general, though not identical, jurisdiction, were known as the superior courts; and the distinction between them and inferior courts of special or limited jurisdiction was clear. In American law the term is variously used, without an exact meaning, except as afforded by the context.
10. n. A person who ranks below another; one who holds a lower place; a subordinate: as, an inferior in qualifications or experience; the inferiors in a great household.
11. In anatomy, lying on the ventral side of the body; farther from the dorsal line, or back, than some other organ or part of an organ.

Wiktionary

1. adj. of lower quality
2. adj. of lower rank
3. adj. located below
4. adj. In botany, inside the flower stalk below the petals. Said of an ovary.
5. n. a person of lower stature to another

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Lower in place, rank, value, excellence, etc.; less important or valuable; subordinate; underneath; beneath.
2. adj. Poor or mediocre.
3. adj. Nearer the sun than the earth is
4. adj. Below the horizon.
5. adj. 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.
6. adj. On the side of a flower which is next the bract; anterior.
7. adj. (Min.) Junior or subordinate in rank.
8. n. A person lower in station, rank, intellect, etc., than another.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. falling short of some prescribed norm
2. n. a character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character
3. adj. of low or inferior quality
4. adj. written or printed below and to one side of another character
5. adj. having an orbit between the sun and the Earth's orbit
6. adj. of or characteristic of low rank or importance
7. adj. lower than a given reference point
8. n. one of lesser rank or station or quality