Inferior
adjective
Not as good as someone else or something else.
His work was considered inferior to that of his colleagues.
Often appears as...
- feel inferior
- considered inferior
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Of lower rank or position.
He was just an inferior officer and not a decision maker.
adjective
In biology, situated below another organ.
The inferior leaves of the plant are small compared to the larger superior ones.
Usage tips
Technical
noun
A person that's less important or lower in rank.
He always looked down on his inferiors.
Usage tips
Formal
adjective
Lower in rank, status or quality.
Her job was viewed as inferior to theirs.
Often appears as...
- inferior position
- inferior quality
Usage tips
Academic
adjective
Not as good as someone else or something else.
His work was considered inferior to that of his colleagues.
Often appears as...
- feel inferior
- considered inferior
Usage tips
Disapproving
adjective
Of lower rank or position.
He was just an inferior officer and not a decision maker.
adjective
In biology, situated below another organ.
The inferior leaves of the plant are small compared to the larger superior ones.
Usage tips
Technical
noun
A person that's less important or lower in rank.
He always looked down on his inferiors.
Usage tips
Formal
adjective
Lower in rank, status or quality.
Her job was viewed as inferior to theirs.
Often appears as...
- inferior position
- inferior quality
Usage tips
Academic
Definition 1 of 5
Pro Tip 1/2Comparative Usage
Often used with 'to' to show comparison, indicating something is less good.
She felt her cooking was inferior to her mother's recipes.
Pro Tip 2/2Negative Feeling
Can imply a feeling of inadequacy or low self-esteem in social contexts.
He felt inferior among his more experienced peers.
Pro Tip 1/2Comparative Usage
Often used with 'to' to show comparison, indicating something is less good.
She felt her cooking was inferior to her mother's recipes.
Pro Tip 2/2Negative Feeling
Can imply a feeling of inadequacy or low self-esteem in social contexts.
He felt inferior among his more experienced peers.
Pro Tip 1/2Comparative Usage
Often used with 'to' to show comparison, indicating something is less good.
She felt her cooking was inferior to her mother's recipes.
Pro Tip 2/2Negative Feeling
Can imply a feeling of inadequacy or low self-esteem in social contexts.
He felt inferior among his more experienced peers.
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Video examples
The difference between...
are better or worse than others, superior or inferior than others. We're either being racist, or we're being anti-racist. We're expressing notions that the racial groups are equals, despite any cultural or even ethnic differences. We're either supporting policies that are leading
Video examples
Why our IQ levels are...
But he did have a sense that black people were inferior. And when we said to our parents and grandparents, "How would you feel if tomorrow morning you woke up black?" they said that is the dumbest thing you've ever said. Who have you ever known who woke up in the morning --
Video examples
The surprising effects...
an important area of research, because some of the most serious complications are related to the heart and blood pressure. The expanding uterus may press on veins— causing fluid buildup in the legs and feet. If it presses on a large vein called the inferior vena cava,
Video examples
MLK, Jr. Remembered PIPE...
African Americans in a separate and generally inferior world from whites african-americans went to separate public schools aid in separate restaurants and even had to use separate public restrooms they had to sit in the back of buses and give up their seats to
Video examples
Small-business solutions...
to believe always seeing as represented as poor people I had come to believe that maybe yes maybe we are inferior because otherwise how do you explain that we're always in the begging situation that's what broke my heart but at the same time that you said that
Video examples
Is there a difference...
gold jewelery or wrought iron gates, would be known communally as artisans, and their works considered minor or decorative arts, connoting an inferior status and solidifying the distinction between art and craft that still persists in the Western world.
Video examples
A Saudi woman who dared...
This system is based on ultra-conservative traditions and customs that deal with women as if they are inferior and they need a guardian to protect them, so they need to take permission from this guardian, whether verbal or written, all their lives.
Video examples
Niall Ferguson: The 6...
But this complement may be much inferior to what, with other laws and institutions, the nature of its soil, climate, and situation might admit of." That is so right and so cool. And he said it such a long time ago.
Video examples
The lie that invented...
and he described them as a distinct group, inferior and beastly. Never mind that in that precolonial time some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa. Why would this guy make this claim?
Video examples
Don't fear intelligent...
plus machine and an inferior process. This convinced me that we would need better interfaces to help us coach our machines
Video examples
The difference between...
are better or worse than others, superior or inferior than others. We're either being racist, or we're being anti-racist. We're expressing notions that the racial groups are equals, despite any cultural or even ethnic differences. We're either supporting policies that are leading
Video examples
Why our IQ levels are...
But he did have a sense that black people were inferior. And when we said to our parents and grandparents, "How would you feel if tomorrow morning you woke up black?" they said that is the dumbest thing you've ever said. Who have you ever known who woke up in the morning --
Video examples
The surprising effects...
an important area of research, because some of the most serious complications are related to the heart and blood pressure. The expanding uterus may press on veins— causing fluid buildup in the legs and feet. If it presses on a large vein called the inferior vena cava,
Video examples
MLK, Jr. Remembered PIPE...
African Americans in a separate and generally inferior world from whites african-americans went to separate public schools aid in separate restaurants and even had to use separate public restrooms they had to sit in the back of buses and give up their seats to
Video examples
Small-business solutions...
to believe always seeing as represented as poor people I had come to believe that maybe yes maybe we are inferior because otherwise how do you explain that we're always in the begging situation that's what broke my heart but at the same time that you said that
Video examples
Is there a difference...
gold jewelery or wrought iron gates, would be known communally as artisans, and their works considered minor or decorative arts, connoting an inferior status and solidifying the distinction between art and craft that still persists in the Western world.
Video examples
A Saudi woman who dared...
This system is based on ultra-conservative traditions and customs that deal with women as if they are inferior and they need a guardian to protect them, so they need to take permission from this guardian, whether verbal or written, all their lives.
Video examples
Niall Ferguson: The 6...
But this complement may be much inferior to what, with other laws and institutions, the nature of its soil, climate, and situation might admit of." That is so right and so cool. And he said it such a long time ago.
Video examples
The lie that invented...
and he described them as a distinct group, inferior and beastly. Never mind that in that precolonial time some of the most sophisticated cultures in the world were in Africa. Why would this guy make this claim?
Video examples
Don't fear intelligent...
plus machine and an inferior process. This convinced me that we would need better interfaces to help us coach our machines
Example 1 of 10
Quote examples
John Tyler
American President
My own personal popularity can have no influence over me when the dictates of my best judgment and the obligations of an oath require of me a particular course. Under such circumstances, whether I sink or swim on the tide of popular favor is, to me, a matter of inferior consideration.
Quote examples
John W. Foster
American Diplomat
Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?
Quote examples
Phil Elverum
American Musician
I sometimes think about the life that my daughter will have with no mom. What does it mean to have a ghost mom? Not that I can do anything differently about it. But it's an inferior version of what we had planned, you know? This was not our top choice.
Quote examples
Jane Campion
New Zealander Director
But short films are not inferior, just different. I think the short gives a freedom to film-makers. What's appealing is that you don't have as much responsibility for storytelling and plot. They can be more like a portrait, or a poem.
Quote examples
Graham Greene
British Novelist
I have often noticed that a bribe has that effect - it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.
Quote examples
Hank Aaron
American Baseball Player
I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.
Quote examples
Junot Diaz
American Writer
I was in fact pretty much - by the larger culture, by the local culture, by people around me, by people on TV - encouraged to imagine women as something slightly inferior to men.
Quote examples
W. E. B. Du Bois
American Writer
What a world this will be when human possibilities are freed, when we discover each other, when the stranger is no longer the potential criminal and the certain inferior!
Quote examples
Rebbie Jackson
I would like to feel that if I can rear three kids in this world and keep them away from the inferior things that life has to offer, I feel that's truly success.
Quote examples
Cheo Hodari Coker
American Journalist
I don't see female characters as different or inferior to male characters.
Quote examples
John Tyler
American President
My own personal popularity can have no influence over me when the dictates of my best judgment and the obligations of an oath require of me a particular course. Under such circumstances, whether I sink or swim on the tide of popular favor is, to me, a matter of inferior consideration.
Quote examples
John W. Foster
American Diplomat
Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?
Quote examples
Phil Elverum
American Musician
I sometimes think about the life that my daughter will have with no mom. What does it mean to have a ghost mom? Not that I can do anything differently about it. But it's an inferior version of what we had planned, you know? This was not our top choice.
Quote examples
Jane Campion
New Zealander Director
But short films are not inferior, just different. I think the short gives a freedom to film-makers. What's appealing is that you don't have as much responsibility for storytelling and plot. They can be more like a portrait, or a poem.
Quote examples
Graham Greene
British Novelist
I have often noticed that a bribe has that effect - it changes a relation. The man who offers a bribe gives away a little of his own importance; the bribe once accepted, he becomes the inferior, like a man who has paid for a woman.
Quote examples
Hank Aaron
American Baseball Player
I never doubted my ability, but when you hear all your life you're inferior, it makes you wonder if the other guys have something you've never seen before. If they do, I'm still looking for it.
Quote examples
Junot Diaz
American Writer
I was in fact pretty much - by the larger culture, by the local culture, by people around me, by people on TV - encouraged to imagine women as something slightly inferior to men.
Quote examples
W. E. B. Du Bois
American Writer
What a world this will be when human possibilities are freed, when we discover each other, when the stranger is no longer the potential criminal and the certain inferior!
Quote examples
Rebbie Jackson
I would like to feel that if I can rear three kids in this world and keep them away from the inferior things that life has to offer, I feel that's truly success.
Quote examples
Cheo Hodari Coker
American Journalist
I don't see female characters as different or inferior to male characters.
Example 1 of 10
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