One of the mysteries of the English language finally explained.
(of a letter, figure, or symbol) written or printed above the line.
- ‘For instance, aspirated consonants are written with a small superscript h after the symbol for the corresponding unaspirated consonant.’
- ‘These potential superscript letter combinations appear several other times in the first page of the documents, but a space has been inserted after the preceding number combination.’
- ‘The peso's abbreviation was p, and its plural was sometimes written as ps, and sometimes the P with a superscript s.’
- ‘Let superscript S indicate suburbs and C indicate center cities.’
A superscript letter, figure, or symbol.
- ‘Haploid sperm from P. lucida (different superscripts represent different males) fertilizes the M egg producing an ML female with the same maternal genome as her mother, but different paternal genome.’
- ‘For the sake of distinction, we use the subscripts to denote the markers and the superscripts to denote the QTL.’
- ‘We use the superscripts m and f to refer to the sex of the individual in which an allele currently resides.’
- ‘A second and even clearer giveaway feature is the appearance of small-font superscripts in words like 117th.’
- ‘In fact, there is a linguistic analog: the use of carets, superscripts, and footnotes - all vertical operations - to embed new information in a finished text.’
- ‘Note that superscripts represent ligand sites (if known) and subscripts refer to processes.’
- ‘The superscript, when present, indicates how many works have been written for that number of performers.’
- ‘In the course of time and as a result of the vagaries of handwriting, P became joined with the superscript s, and the peso/dollar sign was born.’
- ‘We use superscripts and subscripts to distinguish between different SNPs and different alleles within SNPs, respectively.’
- ‘Substantive notes could still have been indicated by numbered superscripts.’
- ‘For convenience, we consider only the case of two alleles at each of the three loci and the notation in this case is varied to reduce the superscripts and subscripts.’
- ‘In the following, we use superscripts H, S, and D to denote variables measured after haploid selection, syngamy, and diploid selection, respectively.’
Late 19th century (as an adjective): from Latin superscriptus ‘written above’, past participle of superscribere.
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