Subordinate vs. Superior — What's the Difference?

Lower in rank or position

Higher in rank, status, or quality

A person under the authority or control of another within an organization

Having or showing an overly high opinion of oneself; conceited

Treat or regard as of lesser importance than something else

(of a letter, figure, or symbol) written or printed above the line.

Belonging to a lower or inferior class or rank; secondary.

Further above or out; higher in position.

Subject to the authority or control of another.

A person superior to another in rank or status, especially a colleague in a higher position

One that is subordinate.

A superior letter, figure, or symbol.

To put in a lower or inferior rank or class.

Higher than another in rank, station, or authority

To make subservient; subdue.

Of a higher nature or kind.

Placed in a lower class, rank, or position.

Of great value or excellence; extraordinary.

Submissive or inferior to, or controlled by authority.

Greater in number or amount than another

Dependent on and either modifying or complementing the main clause

Presuming to be or suggesting that one is morally or socially better than others; disdainful or supercilious.

Descending in a regular series.

Above being affected or influenced; indifferent or immune

(countable) One who is subordinate.

Located higher than another; upper.

(transitive) To make subservient.

(Botany) Inserted or situated above the perianth. Used of an ovary.

(transitive) To treat as of less value or importance.

(Printing) Set above the main line of type.

To make of lower priority in order of payment in bankruptcy.

(Logic) Of wider or more comprehensive application; generic. Used of a term or proposition.

Placed in a lower order, class, or rank; holding a lower or inferior position.

One that surpasses another in rank or quality.

Inferior in order, nature, dignity, power, importance, or the like.

(Ecclesiastical) The head of a religious community, such as a monastery, abbey, or convent.

One who stands in order or rank below another; - distinguished from a principal.

(Printing) A superior character, as the number 2 in x2.

To place in a lower order or class; to make or consider as of less value or importance; as, to subordinate one creature to another.

Higher in rank, status, or quality.

To make subject; to subject or subdue; as, to subordinate the passions to reason.

Of high standard or quality.

An assistant subject to the authority or control of another

Greater in size or power.

A word that is more specific than a given word

Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by.

Rank or order as less important or consider of less value;

Greater or better than average.

Make subordinate, dependent, or subservient;

Courageously or serenely indifferent (as to something painful or disheartening).

Lower in rank or importance

(typography) Printed in superscript.

Subject or submissive to authority or the control of another;

Located above or out; higher in position.

Of a clause; unable to stand alone syntactically as a complete sentence;

Located above or higher, a direction that in humans corresponds to cephalad.

Inferior in rank or status;

(botany) of a calyx Above the ovary; said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part.

(botany) of an ovary Above and free from the other floral organs.

(botany) Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem.

(botany) of the radicle Pointing toward the apex of the fruit.

(taxonomy) More comprehensive.

Affecting or assuming an air of superiority.

(astronomy) of a planet Closer to the Earth than to the Sun.

A person of higher rank or quality, especially a colleague in a higher position.

The senior person in a monastic community.

The head of certain religious institutions and colleges.

(printing) A superior letter, figure, or symbol.

One who has made an original grant of heritable property to a tenant or vassal, on condition of a certain annual payment (feu duty) or of the performance of certain services.

More elevated in place or position; higher; upper; as, the superior limb of the sun; the superior part of an image.

Higher in rank or office; more exalted in dignity; as, a superior officer; a superior degree of nobility.

Higher or greater in excellence; surpassing others in the greatness, or value of any quality; greater in quality or degree; as, a man of superior merit; or of superior bravery.

Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by; - with to.

More comprehensive; as a term in classification; as, a genus is superior to a species.

Above the ovary; - said of parts of the flower which, although normally below the ovary, adhere to it, and so appear to originate from its upper part; also of an ovary when the other floral organs are plainly below it in position, and free from it.

One who is above, or surpasses, another in rank, station, office, age, ability, or merit; one who surpasses in what is desirable; as, Addison has no superior as a writer of pure English.

The head of a monastery, convent, abbey, or the like.

One of greater rank or station or quality

The head of a religious community

A combatant who is able to defeat rivals

The largest freshwater lake in the world; the deepest of the Great Lakes

A town in northwest Wisconsin on Lake Superior across from Duluth

A character or symbol set or printed or written above and immediately to one side of another character

Of high or superior quality or performance;

Of or characteristic of high rank or importance;

(sometimes followed by `to') not subject to or influenced by;

Written or printed above and to one side of another character

Having an orbit farther from the sun than the Earth's orbit;

Having a higher rank;

(often followed by `to') above being affected or influenced by;