inferior
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Lower in rank, status.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
ihnfihreeerSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ɪnˈfɪɹiɚ
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
with to
Lower in rank, status, or quality.
Of low rank, standard or quality.
Written or printed below and to one side of another character
Located below
noun
A person of lower rank, stature, or ability to another.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (with to) Lower in rank, status, or quality.
Used this way, inferior is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use inferior
- “Mercury and Venus are inferior planets.”adjective
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
The inferior branch of the cerebellar artery.
Veins that drain the undersurface of the cerebral hemispheres and empty into the cavernous and transverse sinuses.
An essential auditory center in the midbrain.
The alignment of the Earth and a planet on the same side of the sun.
Any court whose decisions can be appealed to a higher court.
Empties into the external iliac vein.
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.