Definitions

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

  • adjective Higher than another in rank, station, or authority.
  • adjective Of a higher nature or kind.
  • adjective Of great value or excellence; extraordinary.
  • adjective Greater in number or amount than another.
  • adjective Presuming to be or suggesting that one is morally or socially better than others; disdainful or supercilious.
  • adjective Above being affected or influenced; indifferent or immune.
  • adjective Located higher than another; upper.
  • adjective Botany Inserted or situated above the perianth. Used of an ovary.
  • adjective Printing Set above the main line of type.
  • adjective Logic Of wider or more comprehensive application; generic. Used of a term or proposition.
  • noun One that surpasses another in rank or quality.
  • noun Ecclesiastical The head of a religious community, such as a monastery, abbey, or convent.
  • noun Printing A superior character, as the number 2 in x2.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • More elevated in place; higher; upper: as, the superior limb of the sun: opposed to inferior.
  • In anatomy and zoology, upper in relative position or direction; uppermost with regard to something else: correlated with anterior, inferior, and posterior.
  • In botany: Placed higher, as noting the relative position of the calyx and ovary: thus, the ovary is superior when the calyx is quite free from it, as normally; the calyx is superior when from being adnate to the ovary it appears to spring from its top.
  • Next the axis; belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem. Also called posterior.
  • Pointing toward the apex of the fruit; ascending: said of the radicle.
  • Higher in rank or office; more exalted in dignity: as, a superior officer; a superior degree of nobility.
  • Higher or greater in respect to some quality or property; possessed or manifested in a higher (or, absolutely, very high) degree: applied to persons and things, and to their qualities and properties; surpassing others in the greatness, goodness, extent, or value of any quality; in mathematics, greater.
  • Being beyond the power or influence of something; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by something; above: used only predicatively or appositively: with to: as, a man superior to revenge. Sometimes used sarcastically, as of an assumed quality, without to: as, he smiled with a superior air.
  • In logic, less in comprehension; loss determinate; having less depth, and consequently commonly wider.
  • Synonyms Paramount, surpassing, predominant.
  • noun One who is superior to or above another; one who is higher or greater than another, as in social station, rank, office, dignity, power, or ability.
  • noun Specifically The chief of a monastery, convent, or abbey.
  • noun In Scots law, one who or whoso predecessor has made an original grant of heritable property on condition that the grantee, termed the vassal, shall annually pay to him a certain sum (commonly called feu-duty) or perform certain services.
  • noun In printing, a small figure or letter standing above or near the top of the line, used as a mark of reference or for other purposes: thus, x, a; so back, back, and other homonyms as distinguished in this dictionary.

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

  • noun One who is above, or surpasses, another in rank, station, office, age, ability, or merit; one who surpasses in what is desirable.
  • noun (Eccl.) The head of a monastery, convent, abbey, or the like.
  • adjective More elevated in place or position; higher; upper.
  • adjective Higher in rank or office; more exalted in dignity.
  • adjective Higher or greater in excellence; surpassing others in the greatness, or value of any quality; greater in quality or degree.
  • adjective Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by; -- with to.
  • adjective More comprehensive; as a term in classification.
  • adjective Above the ovary; -- said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part; also of an ovary when the other floral organs are plainly below it in position, and free from it.
  • adjective Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem; posterior.
  • adjective Pointing toward the apex of the fruit; ascending; -- said of the radicle.
  • adjective etc. See Conjunction, Planet, etc.
  • adjective (Print.) a figure or letter printed above the line, as a reference to a note or an index of a power, etc. Cf. Inferior figure, under Inferior.

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

  • adjective Higher in quality.
  • adjective Higher in rank.
  • adjective Located above.
  • adjective Being greater or better than average; extraordinary.
  • noun A person of higher rank or quality.
  • noun The senior person in a monastic community.

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

  • noun a town in northwest Wisconsin on Lake Superior across from Duluth
  • adjective of or characteristic of high rank or importance

Etymologies

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

[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin, comparative of superus, upper, from super, over; see uper in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin superior ("higher, being more above"), from superus ("being above"), from super ("above, over").

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