💥 Extremely powerful 🎮 Extra strong in games

supereffective

5.2

A move in a game that does extra damage because its kind is strong against the opponent

adjective
/ˌsuːpərɪˈfɛktɪv/

Jargon

: súper efectivo

That move was supereffective against the water-type Pokémon!

Examples

Fire attacks are supereffective against grass-types.
The electric attack was supereffective against the flying-type monster, causing it to faint instantly.
Choose a move that is supereffective to gain an advantage in the next round.
Her strategy relied on using supereffective abilities to defeat stronger opponents quickly.
The electric attack was supereffective against the flying-type monster, causing it to faint instantly.
To win the battle, he selected a move that was supereffective against his opponent's type.
Using a fire move was supereffective against the grass-type Pokémon, leading to an easy victory.

Antonyms

weak

524 1.0

Not strong in body or muscles and easily tired

ineffective

90 3.4

Not working well enough to give the wanted result

How Effective

supereffective

Jargon

5.2

effective

Formal

165 3.0

ineffective

90 3.4

Surface Forms

supereffective positive

Morphology

supereffective = effective (semi-transparent) = super + effect + ive

The form is structurally clear as super- + effective, but the Pokémon-style type-advantage meaning is a specialized convention rather than a fully general English derivation.

Etymology

Supereffective is made of super- 'very' and effective 'to work', and in games this helps as a memory: a supereffective move 'works' extra well against a certain type and therefore does extra damage. That's why a supereffective attack is much stronger than a regular one.