Word of the Day:

: lying above or upon : overlying

"Foreign states enjoy the right of overflight in the airspace superjacent to a coastal state's 200-mile exclusive economic zone . . .” (James C. Hsiung, The New York Times, April 14, 2001)

More example sentences

You're probably familiar with "adjacent," and if you guessed that it's a relative of "superjacent," you're right. Both derive from the Latin verb "jacere," meaning "to lie." "Adjacent," which is both the more popular and the earlier word (it first appeared in print in the 15th century, while "superjacent" turned up in 1610), comes from "jacere" and the prefix "ad-," meaning "near." "Superjacent," on the other hand, was formed by combining "jacere" with the prefix "super-," meaning "over," "above," or "on top of." In case you were wondering, "jacere" descendants are also available for other possible configurations-"subjacent" means "lying below," and "circumjacent" means "lying near on all sides" or "surrounding."