inferior vs paltry

inferior

adj
  • Of low rank, standard or quality. 

  • Nearer to the Sun than the Earth is. 

  • (of a court or tribunal) Susceptible to having its decisions overturned by a higher court. 

  • Lower in rank, status, or quality. 

  • On the side of a flower which is next to the bract. 

  • Situated further below (another part of the body), a direction that in humans corresponds to caudad. 

  • Situated in a relatively low posterior or ventral position in a quadrupedal body. 

  • Situated below some other organ (said of a calyx when free from the ovary, and therefore below it, or of an ovary with an adherent and therefore inferior calyx). 

  • Denoting goods or services which are in greater demand during a recession than in a boom, for example second-hand clothes. 

  • Below the horizon. 

  • Printed in subscript. 

noun
  • An inferior letter, figure, or symbol. 

  • A person of lower rank, stature, or ability to another. 

paltry

adj
  • Trashy, trivial, of little value. 

  • Of little monetary worth. 

  • Despicable; contemptibly unimportant. 

How often have the words inferior and paltry occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )