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• 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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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

The figurative enemy, Hofstadter wrote, “is a perfect model of malice, a kind of amoral superman — sinister, ubiquitous, powerful, cruel, sensual, luxury-loving.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026

The 35-year-old has previously taken a break from the game for the good of his mental health and four years as England captain is enough to grind down any man, even a superman like Stokes.

From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026

He's 77 years old and doesn't take care of his health, probably because thinks doing that would be doing an admission that he's not the genetic superman he so often claims to be.

From Salon ● Apr. 16, 2024

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 said Harold thats Prof Nemurs frist name I know Charlie is not what you had in mind as the frist of your new breed of intelek** coudnt get the word *** superman.

From "Flowers for Algernon" by Daniel Keyes

Hoult, known for his roles in X-Men, Superman and Mad Max: Fury Road, was announced for the role earlier this month.

From BBC ● Aug. 24, 2026

There’s a reason “Love Actually” featured a kid in Spider-Man face paint, as opposed to a Superman cape.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026

Superman has been in love with Lois Lane for years?

From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026

The teenage superhero’s fans skew younger than those of Batman, Superman and even Harry Potter, according to research firm Parrot Analytics, whose data doesn’t include children.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

“Probably not. I dunno. Who am I? Superman with X-ray vision?”

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols

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

Pep Guardiola praised his Manchester City players as "supermen" as they kept up their chase for a fourth straight league title by beating Bournemouth.

From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2024

Two dual-threat quarterback supermen, one so confident he actually accepted the nickname “Superman,” the other happy to internalize all doubters and silence them in a single bound.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2022

It’s the fans who grow up imagining players as cyborgs in a computerized game, as supermen who can’t be broken and increasingly as mere fantasy characters on a spreadsheet or website.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 7, 2022

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