inferior

• inferiour (obsolete)

Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower in situation or place”), comparative of īnferus (“below, underneath”).

• enPR: ĭnfîrēər
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɪə.ɹi.ə/
• (Standard Southern British) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɪːɹɪjə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɪɹ.i.ɚ/

  • Audio (General American):

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• (New Zealand) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfiə.ɹi.ə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfi.ɾe.əɾ/
• (East Anglia, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /ɪnˈfɛːɹi.ə/
• Rhymes: -ɪəɹiə(ɹ)

inferior (comparative more inferior, superlative most inferior)

1. (with to) Lower in rank, status, or quality.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:inferior

   Antonyms: see Thesaurus:superior

   Anna had always felt inferior to her brother due to poor school grades.

   The pathological liar was morally inferior to his much nicer constituents.

   • 1700, [John] Dryden, “Preface”, in Fables Ancient and Modern; […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

     Whether they are equal or inferior to my other poems, an author is the most improper judge.

   1. Of low rank, standard or quality.

      Synonyms: awful, horrible; low-grade, low-rent; see also Thesaurus:bad, Thesaurus:low-quality

      an inferior officer

      Due to the internet issue, the system generates an inferior audio file.

      She detests visiting inferior places.

   2. (law) (of a court or tribunal) Susceptible to having its decisions overturned by a higher court.
   3. (economics) Denoting goods or services which are in greater demand during a recession than in a boom, for example second-hand clothes.
2. Located below:
   2. (anatomy) Situated further below (another part of the body), a direction that in humans corresponds to caudad.
   3. (zoology) Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body.
   4. (botany) 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).
   5. (botany) On the side of a flower which is next to the bract.

      Synonym: anterior

   6. (typography) Printed in subscript.

      an inferior figure or letter

   7. (astronomy) Below the horizon.

      the inferior part of a meridian

3. (astronomy) Nearer to the Sun than the Earth is.

   the inferior or interior planets

   an inferior conjunction of Mercury or Venus

Inferior and superior are generally followed by to; than is seen sometimes, but is viewed as wrong because than requires a grammatical comparative, not a notional one.

inferior (plural inferiors)

1. A person of lower rank, stature, or ability to another.

   Synonyms: underling, subordinate, Antonym: superior

   As you are my inferior, I can tell you to do anything I want.

2. (printing) An inferior letter, figure, or symbol.

• “inferior”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “inferior”, in Merriam-Webster Online, Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1996–present.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin Eli Smith, editors (1895–1910), “inferior”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “inferior”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• fire iron, fireiron

Learned borrowing from Latin īnferiōrem.

• IPA^(key): (Northern) [iɱ.fə.ɾiˈur]
• IPA^(key): (Balearic) [iɱ.fə.ɾiˈo]
• IPA^(key): (Central) [iɱ.fə.ɾiˈor]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [iɱ.fe.ɾiˈoɾ]
• IPA^(key): (Northwestern) [iɱ.fe.ɾiˈor]

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inferior m or f (masculine and feminine plural inferiors)

1. inferior
2. lower

• inferioritat

• “inferior”, in Diccionari de la llengua catalana [Dictionary of the Catalan Language] (in Catalan), second edition, Institute of Catalan Studies [Catalan: Institut d'Estudis Catalans], April 2007
• “inferior”, in Gran Diccionari de la Llengua Catalana, Grup Enciclopèdia Catalana, 2026
• “inferior” in Diccionari normatiu valencià, Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua.
• Alcover, Antoni Maria; Moll, Francesc de Borja (1963), “inferior”, in Diccionari català-valencià-balear (in Catalan)

Borrowed from Latin īnferior (“lower, inferior”), the comparative of īnferus (“low, nether, underground”).

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

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inferior (strong nominative masculine singular inferiorer, not comparable)

1. subordinate, secondary
2. (of people) inferior

   sich inferior fühlen ― to feel inferior

3. substandard, bad

• “inferior” in Duden online
• “inferior”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[1] (in German)

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [ĩːˈfɛ.ri.ɔr]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [iɱˈfɛː.ri.or]

īnferior (comparative, neuter īnferius); third declension

1. comparative degree of īnferus; lower in situation or place

   Antonym: superior

   1. subsequent, later, latter in time or succession
   2. inferior or lower in quality, rank, or number

      Synonym: subterior

      • 8 CE, Ovidius, Fasti 4.861–862:

        et quotiēns steterīs domitō sublīmis in orbe,
        omnia sint numerīs īnferiōra tuīs.

        And whenever you will stand exalted for having conquered the world,
        may everything be lower than your shoulders!
        (The poet foretells the eventual dominion of the Roman Empire now that Romulus has founded the city of Rome.)

Third-declension comparative adjective.

• īnfimus (superlative)

• “inferior”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• “inferior”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “inferior”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.
• Carl Meißner; Henry William Auden (1894), Latin Phrase-Book‎^[2], London: Macmillan and Co.
  • later writers: scriptores aetate posteriores or inferiores
    
  • to gain a weak case by clever pleading: causam inferiorem dicendo reddere superiorem (λόγον κρείττω ποιειν) (Brut. 8. 30)
    
  • to be defeated in fight, lose the battle: proelio vinci, superari, inferiorem, victum discedere
    
  • to come off victorious: superiorem (opp. inferiorem), victorem (proelio, pugna) discedere
    

From Latin īnferior.

• Audio (Béarn):

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inferior m (feminine singular inferiora, masculine plural inferiors, feminine plural inferioras)

1. inferior
2. lower

Learned borrowing from Latin īnferiōrem.

• Hyphenation: in‧fe‧ri‧or

inferior m or f (plural inferiores)

1. inferior

   Antonym: superior

• “inferior”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

Borrowed from French inférieur, from Latin inferior.

• IPA^(key): /ˌin.fe.riˈor/

inferior m or n (feminine singular inferioară, masculine plural inferiori, feminine/neuter plural inferioare)

1. inferior

   Antonym: superior

• inferioritate

Derived from Latin īnferior.

• IPA^(key): /infeˈɾjoɾ/ [ĩɱ.feˈɾjoɾ]
• Rhymes: -oɾ
• Syllabification: in‧fe‧rior

inferior m or f (masculine and feminine plural inferiores)

1. inferior (of lower quality)
   • 2021 July 21, Juan Garzon, “Los mejores celulares Android de 2021”, in CNN en Español‎^[3], archived from the original on 31 December 2025:

     Los principales sacrificios para esto llegan a través de una memoria RAM inferior (6 GB vs. 8 GB), no se puede cargar inalámbricamente, no tiene carga inalámbrica reversible y no es resistente al agua.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

2. inferior (of lower rank)
3. inferior; lower (below)

   Synonyms: yusano (archaic), yusero (archaic), de (más) abajo

   Antonyms: susano (archaic), susero (archaic), de (más) arriba

   • 2023 August 20, Jordi Quixano, “España se hace inmortal con la conquista de su primer Mundial femenino”, in El País‎^[4], Madrid: Ediciones El País, S.L., →ISSN, archived from the original on 21 August 2023:

     España derribó la puerta de la eternidad para hacerse inmortal, para ponerse el laurel de oro y diamantes, para significarse al fin como la mejor del mundo, cosa que llevaba años haciendo en las categorías inferiores.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• superior

• “inferior”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025