Inferior

How to spell inferior

8 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce inferior

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does inferior mean?

1. adjectiveLower in quality, value, or standing than something or someone else.
2. nounA person of lower rank or status than another, especially within an organisation.

Inferior in a sentence

• adjective

  The cheaper laptop felt noticeably inferior once we compared the screens.

• noun

  A good manager never treats an inferior with contempt.

• adjective

  The report dismissed the rival product as technically inferior.

• noun

  The old officer spoke to every inferior as though he owned them.

Where does inferior come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes straight from the Latin inferior, which was the comparative form of the adjective inferus, meaning 'low' or 'situated below'. So at its root inferior literally meant 'lower' or 'more below', a sense of physical position that later broadened into judgements of rank and quality. English adopted it in the 1400s, originally to describe something placed lower in space or lower in a hierarchy, before it settled into the modern meaning of poorer quality or lesser standing. The same Latin inferus also gave us 'infernal' and ultimately 'inferno', because the underworld was imagined as the place down below. Remembering that the ending is the Latin comparative -ior, the same tail seen in 'superior' and 'exterior', helps fix why it is spelled -ior and not -ier.

How the word is built

• infer- (from Latin inferus: low, below)
• -ior (Latin comparative suffix: more)