superiority

American  

[suh-peer-ee-awr-i-tee, -or-, soo-] / səˌpɪər iˈɔr ɪ ti, -ˈɒr-, sʊ- /

noun

• superiorities
  plural

1. 

   the quality or condition of being superior.

---

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• superiorities
  plural

---

Etymology

Origin of superiority

First recorded in 1520–30, superiority is from the Medieval Latin word superiōritāt- (stem of superiōritās ). See superior, -ity

---

Explanation

Superiority is the quality of being better than or superior to someone else. Your superiority in the sack race won you a first-place ribbon. Superiority refers to the best. It’s better than, above, greater than everything else, whether there’s something to compare it to — the superiority of one ice cream flavor over another — or whether it just describes a general state of high quality — the superiority of the University library. Of course, sometimes superiority is all in your head; in that case, some people might say you have a superiority complex, which means that you think you’re better than everyone else!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

superiority superiorities

Beneath the battle for aerial superiority, unmanned ground vehicles scurry back and forth delivering supplies, evacuating the wounded or, increasingly, leading the charge against the enemy.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2026

Livia may have been the awkward “country mouse” of her class, but she was a prodigy, and her fragile self-esteem relied on the superiority of her playing.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026

But El-Sayed ably weaponized these resources against Stevens, making her financial superiority the core of his argument against her.

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

Amodei’s main concern, he wrote in the letter, was the risk of authoritarian governments catching up with the U.S. in AI “to achieve permanent military superiority or perpetrate incredibly deep repression of their own people.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026

One thing I do know about my dad is that he hates racism and homogeneity more than anything, and not because of any feelings of self-righteousness or moral superiority.

From "Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood" by Trevor Noah

"Obviously none of the other materials . . . would produce a comb possessing the many excellent qualities and inherent superiorities of a comb made of celluloid," Hyatt wrote in one of his patent applications.

From Scientific American ● May 29, 2011

All of the expected prestige names turn up at the top, but the study is nonetheless full of fascinating comparisons and subtle superiorities.

From Time Magazine Archive

Adding up what is known of most of these factors, the margins, evident superiorities, palpable weaknesses of the three belligerent air forces stack up somewhat as follows.

From Time Magazine Archive

Such superiorities, in fact, hardly exist across the Atlantic.

From A Modern Symposium by G. Lowes (Goldsworthy Lowes) Dickinson

They keep using ideas as megaphones to proclaim their own superiorities.

From Gargoyles by Ben Hecht

Random Word

Spin the wheel and learn a new word!

---

Related Words

• dominance
• excellence
• perfection
• preeminence
• prestige
• supremacy
• upper hand

---