Super

How to spell super

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce super

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does super mean?

1. adjectiveExcellent, first-rate, or very good.
2. adverbExtremely or very, used to intensify an adjective.
3. nounInformal term for the superintendent who maintains an apartment building.

Super in a sentence

• adjective

  The team did a super job finishing the report ahead of schedule.

• adverb

  The instructions were super clear, so the assembly took only ten minutes.

• noun

  The super fixed the leaking radiator in our apartment within an hour.

• adjective

  We found a super little restaurant tucked behind the station.

• adverb

  She was super careful packing the fragile glassware for the move.

• noun

  Tenants left a note for the super about the broken laundry machine.

Where does super come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This little word is the Latin preposition and prefix super, which literally meant 'above', 'over', or 'beyond', the same root that sits inside grander words like superior, supreme, and supernatural. For centuries English used super only as a prefix glued to the front of longer words, never on its own. In the nineteenth century it broke free as a clipped, informal form of words such as superfine and superlative, and by the early twentieth century 'super' was being used as a casual adjective meaning 'first-rate' and then as an intensifying adverb meaning 'extremely'. In American usage it also became a clipped form of superintendent, the person who runs an apartment building. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, with no silent letters or doubled consonants, which is why it rarely trips anyone up.

How the word is built

• super (from Latin super: above, over, beyond), used as a standalone word