Jump To:

• superman
  superman

  noun

  a person of extraordinary or superhuman powers.
• Superman
  Superman

  A seemingly immortal, superhuman comic-strip character created in the late 1930s, who hides his powers beneath the persona of Clark Kent, a mild-mannered newspaper reporter. Only when there is a threat of danger — often to his fellow reporter and secret love, Lois Lane — does Clark transform himself into the caped hero with x-ray vision.

superman

American  

[soo-per-man] / ˈsu pərˌmæn /

noun

supermen plural

1. a person of extraordinary or superhuman powers.

2. an ideal superior being conceived by Nietzsche who attains happiness, dominance, and creativity.

3. a superior being conceived as the product of human evolution.

4. one who prevails by virtue of being a ruthless egoist of superior strength, cunning, and force of will.

---

superman British  

/ ˈsuːpəˌmæn /

noun

1. (in the philosophy of Nietzsche) an ideal man who through integrity and creativity would rise above good and evil and who represents the goal of human evolution

2. any man of apparently superhuman powers

---

Superman ¹ Cultural  

1. A seemingly immortal, superhuman comic-strip character created in the late 1930s, who hides his powers beneath the persona of Clark Kent, a mild-mannered newspaper reporter. Only when there is a threat of danger — often to his fellow reporter and secret love, Lois Lane — does Clark transform himself into the caped hero with x-ray vision.

---

Superman ² Cultural  

1. An ideal of humanity found in Thus Spake Zarathustra, by Friedrich Nietzsche. The Superman, or Overman (the German is Übermensch), is the single goal of all human striving, for which people must be willing to sacrifice all. It is doubtful that Nietzsche thought of the Overman as an individual person.

---

Gender

See -man.

Discover More

Superman has been adapted for various radio and television series and a number of highly successful films.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• supermen
  plural

Etymology

Origin of superman

1900–05; super- + man, translation of German Übermensch

Explanation

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's...Superman! As you might be able to guess from this comic book hero's name, a superman is a person with great strength or power beyond that of ordinary humans. The term superman was originally a translation of the German Übermensch, literally "overman." This first superman was a philosophical concept, an ideal human for ordinary people to aspire to. Through the 1920s and 30s, it was common to describe a great athlete or brilliant politician as a superman. In 1938, the crime-fighting, cape-wearing Superman first appeared in comic book form. Superman is credited with being the original superhero.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

superman Superman supermen

I cannot entirely fault those who are still looking for a hero or a superman who cuts through the noise and nonsense.

From Salon ● Jan. 26, 2025

At the center of this universe sits Papageno, a colorful, intractably disorderly oddball in muddied outdoor gear, an everyman turned unlikely superman who, in spurning the cultural mores that would shackle him, rises above them.

From New York Times ● May 21, 2023

He fabricated a new persona, that of a meritocratic superman.

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 30, 2022

A video of a small child dressed in a superman costume riding his bike around Chile's President Gabriel Boric in mid-speech has gone viral.

From Reuters ● Sep. 7, 2022

The sentiment is understandable, for Kelvin really was a kind of Victorian superman.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

Slipping two spots to fourth was "Supergirl," a Warner Bros sci-fi effort starring Milly Alcock as Kara Zor-El, a cousin of Superman who also possesses superhuman strength.

From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026

At one event, in which Oz was interviewed by Dean Cain, an actor who played Superman in a 1990s television show, about 50 people listened in as Oz droned on about an anti-fraud task force.

From Slate ● Jul. 1, 2026

And who should arrive to put a button on the story but Superman, welcoming his cousin back to Metropolis with open arms and a flowing cape.

From Salon ● Jun. 27, 2026

DC Studios rebooted its cinematic universe with last year's well-received Superman, which followed a string of underperforming movies based on the comic company's collection of heroes and villains.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

“The way Superman can squeeze a lump of coal so hard that it turns into a diamond?”

From "Mr. Lemoncello's Library Olympics" by Chris Grabenstein

It’s in service of crank conspiracy theories, quack wellness influencers and weird dystopian visions of supermen doing pull-ups to demonstrate their patriotism.

From Salon ● Aug. 31, 2025

"I adore my players - they are supermen," Guardiola told Sky Sports.

From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2024

But they are not cartoon supermen; they are human beings — highly skilled and disciplined, but still human.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022

Do you have a favorite of the new supermen?

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 23, 2016

Piper thought about her dad’s most famous movie, King of Sparta, and how the Spartans were portrayed as invincible supermen.

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan