Superior figure

(Print.) a figure or letter printed above the line, as a reference to a note or an index of a power, etc; as, in x2 + yn, 2 is a superior figure, n a superior letter. Cf. Inferior figure, under Inferior.

See also: Superior

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, published 1913 by G. & C. Merriam Co.
References in periodicals archive ?
The model delivers a top speed of up to 315kmph and driving dynamics that cuts an effortlessly superior figure.
Somerset lead the table on run rate with Glamorgan boasting a superior figure to Gloucestershire.
Ongoing access to secret knowledge and the purposeful withholding of it makes Ligurio the superior figure in a play where, as we know from Nicia's pathetically comic ignorance, knowledge is constantly being heralded as power.
Portraits of the period, showing the royal couple together were painted to the same scale, rather than with the pharaoh displayed as a larger, and thus superior figure to his wife which is, say the experts, an indication of the high esteem in which she was held.
It was while translating the latter's Life of Cicero in 1415 that Bruni became keenly aware of two major flaws in the original: firstly, Plutarch had omitted much that was pertinent; secondly, he bore a distinct bias against his subject, probably caused by his desire to play Demosthenes off as the superior figure in the parallel lives.(19) In the face of such shortcomings, Bruni decided not to translate Plutarch after all, but to write his own account of the life and deeds of Cicero, which he came to call Cicero novus.
"I am still wedded intellectually to my figures," says Beyer, "but a horse with a clearly superior figure off its last race is now almost always heavily bet, so you have to look beyond the obvious standout figure."
Mark Adair was cleaned up by Broad, who also proved too good for Andy McBrine, but it was Woakes who finished with the marginally superior figures.
Holding monthly lecture series by GECF's secretariat is the other achievement of the secretariat over the last two years, he said adding Daniel Yergin as a prominent economist and the winner of Pulitzer Prize and one of the 100 superior figures of the world was the guest of the last seminar of the forum which was held a few days ago by the Secretariat.
Paul Collingwood's 6-31 against Bangladesh in 2005 are the only superior figures by an Englishman.
Despite last night's stunning victory over Stoke, the Diamonds missed out on the all-important eighth place in the table on race-points difference, with Workington boasting far superior figures.
Surprisingly the superior figures include the recent equity markets rise that started in the spring of 2 003.
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