Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of higher rank, status, or value.
  • adjective Logic Of or being the relation of a broader category to a narrower category that it encompasses, such as metal in relation to iron.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Related as a universal proposition to a particular one in the same terms.
  • In zoology, having the rank or value of a superorder; being above the rank of an order.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Greater in degree, rank or position
  • adjective logic The relation of a universal proposition to a specific proposition of the same form with the universal quantified variable replaced by a specific instance.
  • adjective linguistics, of a word or phrase hypernymic
  • noun That which is superordinate.
  • noun linguistics A hypernym.
  • verb transitive To cause to be superordinate.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one of greater rank or station or quality
  • adjective of higher rank or status or value
  • verb place in a superior order or rank
  • noun a word that is more generic than a given word

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[super– + (sub)ordinate.]

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