INFERIORITY Synonyms: 65 Similar and Opposite Words

inferiority

noun

as in worthlessness

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of inferiority My work shows how the growing association between alligators and Black bodies was part of this larger campaign to reinforce notions of Black inferiority. — The Conversation, 11 Aug. 2026 Because slavish inferiority did not befit his spirit. — Ann Manov, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026 Indeed, the American League’s inferiority to the National this year is palpable. — Bill Madden, New York Daily News, 20 June 2026 Amadeus is a portrait of a man realizing his own inferiority and losing his religion as a result, and Bettany’s incredible rendition of Salieri shapes the series’ rumination on who yearns to command a stage and why. — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 11 May 2026 There’s no one to root for here, an impression that’s underlined by the consistent lack of inferiority within the characters. — Katie Rife, IndieWire, 16 Mar. 2026 Since the 1970s, feminist scholars have been actively documenting the ways menstruation has been used to ground false arguments about women’s weakness, invalidism, and inferiority in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. — Literary Hub, 11 Mar. 2026 Just to be clear, Trump supporters are now rubbing the inferiority of women in the face of women who ask for support for girls sports. — Megan Schrader, Denver Post, 25 Feb. 2026 Statistically, the results did not show that CagriSema performed equivalently to Lilly’s drug — what’s known as non-inferiority. — Andrew Joseph, STAT, 23 Feb. 2026

Recent Examples of Synonyms for inferiority

Noun

He is simultaneously convinced of his own worthlessness and angry with the world for failing to recognize his unlimited potential.

— Big Think, Big Think, 29 Apr. 2026
Johnson said depression often manifests as persistent negative self-perception, hopelessness, feelings of worthlessness and social withdrawal.

— Sarah Rumpf-Whitten, FOXNews.com, 8 Mar. 2026

Definition of worthlessness

Noun

On one side, a satanic figure named Randall Flagg who gathers his forces of badness to Las Vegas; on the other, the good guys, led by 108-year-old Mother Abigail in, of all places, Boulder.

— Barbara Ellis, Denver Post, 15 Jan. 2026
The show premiered over Thanksgiving weekend, when people were tired and full and bored (and probably also horny), and countered our world’s unceasing badness with its world’s buoyant sweetness.

— Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 12 Jan. 2026

Definition of badness

Noun

Revising the number mid-review without support hurt bunq twice, once on adequacy and once on credibility.

— AJ Dhaliwal, Forbes.com, 29 Aug. 2026
For the three trackers, one is for regional transmission organization adjustment, another is for fuel adjustment and the last is resource adequacy adjustment.

— Maya Wilkins, Chicago Tribune, 25 Aug. 2026

Definition of adequacy

Noun

Today, everyone from the Economist to the New York Times has heralded the coming psychedelics renaissance, as hallucinogens begin to gain greater cultural, medical and commercial acceptability.

— Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 29 July 2026
The rate has been gradually dropping for decades, due to cigarette taxes, tobacco product price hikes, smoking bans, public education campaigns and changes in the social acceptability of lighting up in public.

— Mike Stobbe, Fortune, 29 May 2026

Definition of acceptability

Noun

Rex Frazier, a former deputy commissioner at the California Department of Insurance, said that in the situation that the insurers find themselves, the state regulator will be looking at a company’s capital sufficiency.

— Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 16 Aug. 2026
Since then, the case has remained in the pleading stage, where the county has challenged the sufficiency of the claims without answering them, and the child’s attorneys have revised their complaint three times.

— Bay City News, Mercury News, 1 Aug. 2026

Definition of sufficiency

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“Inferiority.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/inferiority. Accessed 2 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of inferiority

noun

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