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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

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

Hashtags related to the man, who netizens have called "Chongqing's superman brother" or "Chongqing hero" were censored on Friday.

From Reuters ● Nov. 25, 2022

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

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

Another comment reads simply: "Superman also had a side hustle."

From BBC ● Aug. 11, 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

He told the police he was the original Superman artist, and to prove it he drew the Man of Steel convincingly enough to stay out of jail.

From Salon ● Jul. 31, 2026

Three-quarters of Spider-Man’s audience is male, slightly below Batman and Superman, but higher than Potter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Superman burst through walls, lifted cars, and caught people falling out of buildings before they hit the ground.

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

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

Its race marks an all-time peak in action attained by any camera anywhere — 10 minutes of hurtling chariots, flying horses and berserk supermen.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

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

From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 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