übermensch means an overman (“higher” man) who has overcome (transcended) his (mere) humanity. It carries an Arena rating of 1569, earned across 7 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, übermensch ranks #581 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words, #1,465 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #4,109 of 17,128 for Most Ponderous Words, #4,401 of 17,126 for Most Satisfying to Say.
übermensch is pronounced /ˈuː.bəˌmɛnʃ/.
Why “übermensch” is a great word
A person who has transcended conventional human morality and limitations to achieve a superior, self-determined state of being. Unadapted borrowing from German Übermensch, a compound of über- ("over, above, beyond") and Mensch ("human being, man"), the term was notably used and popularized by Friedrich Nietzsche in the 1880s. Unlike "superman," which evokes cartoonish physical might, or "self-actualized," which suggests the comfortable fulfillment of an existing potential, the Übermensch signifies a radical, self-willed overcoming—the creation of new values beyond good and evil. It is the solitary mountaineer stepping past the last marked trail, the hammer-blow that shatters old tablets of law to carve new ones, the quiet, burning clarity of a dawn in which old stars die with the whisper of a self-made law—the heavy, ecstatic loneliness of being no longer merely human.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from German Übermensch.
noun
- An overman (“higher” man) who has overcome (transcended) his (mere) humanity.
- A member of the proposed Aryan super race.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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