inferior

adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“inferior” is uncommon German (frequency #51,431 among 1,488 “I” headwords), classed as an adjective. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#51,431
frequency rank, German
1,488
“I” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - tiefer gelegen, niedriger gelegen

Corpus desk

Index DE-inferior · inferior · German

inferior · rank #51,431 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #51,431
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 1,488
  • PHOTO-FINISH Ingolstädter

Nearest frequency peer: Ingolstädter (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Langschwanz-Ränge nahe „inferior“

Dünnes Band: Balken invertieren den Rang, seltenere Formen wirken kürzer

corpus weight

What this shows Langschwanz-Sicht: wo „inferior“ gegen ähnlich seltene deutsche Ränge sitzt.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for inferior
PropertyValue
Headwordinferior
LanguageGerman
Part of speechAdjective
Letters8
Frequency rank#51,431
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Langschwanz-Rang von „inferior“ im Deutschen

Von links nach rechts: die wenigen Träger des Alltags, dann der lange Schwanz kaum gebrauchter Formen.inferiorfällt in diesen Seltenheitsbereich:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Die Ticks laufen logarithmisch; jeder ist rund zehnmal seltener. Seltene Nachbarn derselben Bandbreite: „Ingolstädter“ (#51,432), „illustre“ (#51,429), „Intensivmedizin“ (#51,433). Unter 1,488 „I“-Lemmata liegt „inferior“ bei #51,431. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

inferior is uncommon German at frequency #51,431 among 1,488 “I” headwords, classed as anadjective. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 3 senses are on record.

No misspelling variants are generated for inferior in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable German patterns. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, a sign it's visually distinctive enough not to be mixed up with another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct German form is inferior, spelled I-N-F-E-R-I-O-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    tiefer gelegen, niedriger gelegen
  2. 2
    später, jünger
  3. 3
    geringer, schwächer, nachgeordnet

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how inferior appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. „Belgae ab extremis Galliae finibus oriuntur, pertinent ad inferiorem partem fluminis Rheni, spectant in septentrionem et orientem solem.“ (Caes. Gall. 1,1,6)

Antonyms

superior

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 German corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "inferior"?
"inferior" is spelled I-N-F-E-R-I-O-R.
What does "inferior" mean?
As an adjective, "inferior" means: tiefer gelegen, niedriger gelegen
What language does "inferior" come from?
"inferior" is a German word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar German words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "inferior", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked German headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

illustre#51,429Humanist#51,420hinsieht#51,412Kartelle#51,451

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list