inferiority complex
an intense feeling of inferiority or inadequacy; low self-esteem, sometimes characterized by compensatory behaviors intended to bolster self-confidence. : Compare superiority complex.
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Origin of inferiority complex
1Words Nearby inferiority complex
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use inferiority complex in a sentence
Bobby had a major inferiority complex while he was married to Whitney—and was jealous of Kevin Costner and Denzel Washington.
Speed Read: Juiciest Bits From Cissy Houston’s ‘Remembering Whitney’ | Melissa Leon | January 31, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST“We have to get rid of our inferiority complex and free ourselves from the West,” he declared.
Killed by a Drone Strike, Top al Qaeda Recruiter Abu Yahya al-Libi Will Be Hard to Replace | Sami Yousafzai, Ron Moreau | June 6, 2012 | THE DAILY BEASTI suppose it is inferiority complex yet some of the best books in English are translations.
Such a move will acknowledge its rising power and mollify its inferiority complex.
If you lived out here long enough, Im afraid you would have a bad inferiority complex.
The Adventure Girls at K Bar O | Clair Blank
I yielded to an instinct for deprecative horse-play, one of my worst faults, begot of an inferiority-complex.
Tramping on Life | Harry KempThis superintendent must have a terrible inferiority complex, which that disfiguring scar certainly didn't help.
Man of Many Minds | E. Everett EvansFor how much longer will man be a slave to his inferiority complex with regard to his own rational capacities?
The Necessity of Atheism | Dr. D.M. BrooksIt occupied all her thoughts; and in the process she soon developed what would now be dubbed a marked inferiority-complex.
The Magnificent Montez | Horace Wyndham
British Dictionary definitions for inferiority complex
psychiatry a disorder arising from the conflict between the desire to be noticed and the fear of being humiliated, characterized by aggressiveness or withdrawal into oneself
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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