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Gentle vs Superior - What's the difference?

gentle | superior |

As adjectives the difference between gentle and superior

is that gentle is tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition while superior is higher in quality.

As nouns the difference between gentle and superior

is that gentle is (archaic) a person of high birth while superior is a person of higher rank or quality.

As a verb gentle

is to become gentle.

gentle

English

Adjective

(er)
  • Tender and amiable; of a considerate or kindly disposition.
  • Soft and mild rather than hard or severe.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=3 citation , passage=Here the stripped panelling was warmly gold and the pictures, mostly of the English school, were mellow and gentle in the afternoon light.}}
  • Docile and easily managed.
  • a gentle horse
  • Gradual rather than steep or sudden.
  • Polite and respectful rather than rude.
  • (archaic) Well-born; of a good family or respectable birth, though not noble.
  • * Johnson's Cyc.
  • British society is divided into nobility, gentry, and yeomanry, and families are either noble, gentle , or simple.
  • * Milton
  • the studies wherein our noble and gentle youth ought to bestow their time

    Synonyms

    * (polite) friendly, kind, polite, respectful

    Antonyms

    * (polite) rude

    Derived terms

    * gentle craft * gentleness * gentleman * gentlewoman * gently

    Verb

    (gentl)
  • to become gentle (rfex)
  • to ennoble (rfex)
  • (animal husbandry) to break; to tame; to domesticate (rfex)
  • To soothe; to calm. (rfex)
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (archaic) A person of high birth.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Gentles , methinks you frown.
  • (archaic) A maggot used as bait by anglers (rfex)
  • A trained falcon, or falcon-gentil.
  • superior

    English

    Alternative forms

    * superiour (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Higher in quality.
  • Higher in rank.
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=There were many wooden chairs for the bulk of his visitors, and two wicker armchairs with red cloth cushions for superior people. From the packing-cases had emerged some Indian clubs, […], and all these articles […] made a scattered and untidy decoration that Mrs. Clough assiduously dusted and greatly cherished.}}
  • More comprehensive, as a term in classification.
  • A genus is superior to a species.
  • Located above.
  • the superior''' jaw; the '''superior part of an image
  • # (botany) 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.
  • # (botany) Belonging to the part of an axillary flower which is toward the main stem; posterior.
  • # (botany) Pointing toward the apex of the fruit; ascending; said of the radicle.
  • # (typography) Printed in superscript.
  • a superior figure or letter
  • Greater or better than average; extraordinary.
  • Beyond the power or influence of; too great or firm to be subdued or affected by; with to .
  • * Spectator
  • There is not in earth a spectacle more worthy than a great man superior to his sufferings.

    Usage notes

    * Superior and inferior are generally followed by to; than is sometimes used mistakenly.

    Antonyms

    * (l)

    Coordinate terms

    *

    Derived terms

    * superiorness

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A person of higher rank or quality.
  • The senior person in a monastic community.