superficial
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Not thorough, deep.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sooperfishuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
supɚˈfɪʃəl
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
Appearing to be true or real only until examined more closely.
Not thorough, deep, or complete; concerned only with the obvious or apparent.
Lacking depth of character or understanding; lacking substance or significance.
noun
usually in the plural
A surface detail.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Varies by meaning
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not thorough, deep, or complete; concerned only with the obvious or apparent.
Used this way, superficial is a reasonably familiar word with a clearly warm, approving pull. It quietly approves while staying precise.
- Emotional tone
- Positive
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Careful and exacting
- Usage feel
- Precise and approving
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use superficial
- “Superficial similarities.”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.
Join the middle temporal vein to empty into the retromandibular vein.
Empties into the great saphenous vein.
A large vein along the line of the Sylvian fissure to the cavernous sinus.
Related words
Connected by subject or meaning, not by word formation.
Superficial dorsal veins of the clitoris.
Superficial dorsal veins of the penis.
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.