SUPERSCRIPTION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does superscription mean? 

• SUPERSCRIPTION (noun)
  The noun SUPERSCRIPTION has 2 senses:

1. an inscription written above something else

2. the activity of superscribing

  Familiarity information: SUPERSCRIPTION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUPERSCRIPTION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An inscription written above something else

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Hypernyms ("superscription" is a kind of...):

inscription; lettering (letters inscribed (especially words engraved or carved) on something)

Derivation:

superscribe (write on the outside or upper part of)

superscribe (write on the top or outside)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The activity of superscribing

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("superscription" is a kind of...):

inscription (the activity of inscribing (especially carving or engraving) letters or words)

Derivation:

superscribe (write on the outside or upper part of)

superscribe (write on the top or outside)

 Context examples 

There is a date, you see, but no superscription except Leadenhall Street, which is rather vague.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Miss Lavinia turned my letter, so as to bring the superscription towards herself, and referred through her eye-glass to some orderly-looking notes she had made on that part of it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

“From Portsmouth at midday,” said the secretary, examining the superscription.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I waited for my letters with feverish impatience; if they were delayed I was miserable and overcome by a thousand fears; and when they arrived and I saw the superscription of Elizabeth or my father, I hardly dared to read and ascertain my fate.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)