Definitions

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

  • noun An article or a product of superior size, quality, or grade.
  • noun A superintendent in an apartment or office building.
  • noun A supernumerary.
  • adjective Very large, great, or extreme.
  • adjective Excellent; first-rate.
  • adverb Especially; extremely.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An abbreviation of superior
  • noun of superfine.
  • noun A supernumerary; specifically, a supernumerary actor.
  • noun A superhive. See bar super, under bar.
  • noun A superintendent.
  • noun A prefix of Latin origin, meaning ‘over, above, beyond’: equivalent to hyper- of Greek origin, or over- of English origin.
  • noun One of the medium or middle sorts of a fleece of wool.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Theatrical Cant A contraction of supernumerary, in sense 2.

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

  • adjective Of excellent quality, superfine.
  • adjective better than average, better than usual; wonderful.
  • adverb informal Very; extremely (used like the prefix super-).
  • noun beekeeping An empty box placed above the existing boxes of the beehive in order to allow the colony to expand or store additional honey.
  • verb beekeeping To add or to place a super atop the existing boxes of the beehive.
  • noun Australia, New Zealand, informal, uncountable Short form of superannuation, the Australian/New Zealand retirement benefits or pension scheme.
  • noun informal, Northeastern US Abbreviation of superintendent in the sense of a building's resident manager, sometimes clarified as "building super".
  • noun comics, slang superhero.

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

  • adverb to an extreme degree
  • adjective of the highest quality
  • adjective including more than a specified category
  • adjective extremely large
  • noun a caretaker for an apartment house; represents the owner as janitor and rent collector

Etymologies

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

[From super–.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From superfine

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortened form of superhive.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From superannuation

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From superintendent

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Shortened form of superhero.

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Examples

  • The International Space Nomenclature Council today adopted the term ‘emplacements de hauts gravité super’ – or ’super high gravity locations’ – as the official replacement name for black holes.

    Black Hole Given Less Offensive Name | Impact Lab 2007

  • I don't particularly like the term "super tutor", which I hear used more and more by the parents who hire me to work with their children.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph Mark MacLaine 2012

  • Columbia University professor William T. R. Fox coined the term super power in 1944, primarily to describe the British Empire and Commonwealth; a common myth is that the United States assumed “the leadership of the world,” “replacing” the British Empire in 1947 by aiding Greece.

    Magic and Mayhem Derek Leebaert 2010

  • I've been around for awhile, but I think the term super-senior is inappropriately snarky!

    Archive 2008-09-01 University of Arizona Women's Resource Center Blog 2008

  • I've been around for awhile, but I think the term super-senior is inappropriately snarky!

    Meet Allison! University of Arizona Women's Resource Center Blog 2008

  • Or did he see a way to entrench Roe more securely than if he'd talked about the term super stare decisis?

    Archive 2007-07-01 Ann Althouse 2007

  • DC & Marvel hold a joint *trademark* to the term super-hero for use in publications, and have held it for many years.

    Who owns 'Super-Hero'? David S. Carter 2006

  • DC & Marvel hold a joint *trademark* to the term super-hero for use in publications, and have held it for many years.

    Archive 2006-03-01 David S. Carter 2006

  • A meal that brings new meaning to the term super size.

    CNN Transcript Jun 22, 2004 2004

  • M. O'BRIEN: Gives new meaning to the term super size.

    CNN Transcript Mar 26, 2004 2004

  • In 2013, The Washington Post conducted a nationwide analysis that identified the wealthiest and most educated zip codes in the U.S., labeled “Super Zips” (building upon an earlier analysis by political scientist Charles Murray).

    What Elizabeth Warren’s Last Election Can Tell Us About 2020 Nathaniel Rakich 2019

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