in·fe·ri·or / inˈfi(ə)rēər/ • adj. 1. lower in rank, status, or quality: schooling in inner-city areas was inferior to that in the rest of the country. ∎  of low standard or quality: inferior goods. ∎  Law (of a court or tribunal) able to have its decisions overturned by a higher court. ∎ Econ. denoting goods or services that are in greater demand during a recession than in a boom, e.g., secondhand clothes.2. chiefly Anat. low or lower in position: ulcers located in the inferior and posterior wall of the duodenum. ∎  (of a letter, figure, or symbol) written or printed below the line. ∎  Bot. (of the ovary of a flower) situated below the sepals and enclosed in the receptacle.• n. 1. a person lower than another in rank, status, or ability: her social and intellectual inferiors.2. Printing an inferior letter, figure, or symbol.DERIVATIVES: in·fe·ri·or·ly adv. (in sense 2 of the adjective ).

inferior Describing a structure that is positioned below or lower than another structure in the body. For example, in flowering plants the ovary is described as inferior when it is located below the other organs of the flower (see epigyny). Compare superior.

inferior lower XV (in physical sense now chiefly techn.); of lower or low degree XVI; sb. XVI — L., compar. of inferus low; see UNDER, -IOR.

inferior Applied to an ovary when the other organs of the flower are inserted above it. Compare SUPERIOR.

inferior (in-feer-i-er) adj. (in anatomy) lower in the body in relation to another structure or surface.