1. Of or characteristic of low rank or importance
   "He felt inferior to his more accomplished colleagues"
    
2. Of low or inferior quality
   "The inferior materials used in construction led to structural problems"
    
3. Falling short of some prescribed norm
   "inferior housing";
   - deficient, substandard
    
4. (printing) written or printed below the line
   "The inferior numbers in the chemical formula";
   - subscript
    
5. (anatomy) lower than a given reference point
   "inferior alveolar artery"
    
6. (astronomy) having an orbit between the sun and the Earth's orbit
   "Mercury and Venus are inferior planets"

1. One of lesser rank, station or quality
   "He felt like an inferior in the presence of his more accomplished colleagues"
    
2. A character or symbol set or printed or written beneath or slightly below and to the side of another character
   "In mathematical notation, inferiors are often used to denote variables";
   - subscript

Derived forms: inferiors

See also: bad, base, bottom, bum [informal], bush, bush-league [N. Amer, informal], caliber [US], calibre [Brit, Cdn], cheap, cheapjack [N. Amer, informal], cheesy [informal], chintzy [N. Amer, informal], coarse, coarsened, commercial, commercial-grade, common, crumby [informal], crummy [informal], deplorable, execrable, gimcrack, humble, indifferent, less, low, low-grade, low-level, lowly, mediocre, middle-level, miserable, modest, nonstandard, outclassed, punk [N. Amer, informal], quality, ropey [Brit, informal], ropy [Brit, informal], scrawny, scrubby, second-class, second-rate, shoddy, shonky [Austral, NZ, informal], small, stunted, subordinate, subsidiary, tacky [informal], third-rate, tinny [archaic], woeful, worst, wretched

Type of: acolyte, character, follower, graph, grapheme, graphic symbol

Antonym: adscript, higher-up [informal], superior

Encyclopedia: Inferior