According to OED,
They all have the meaning "higher than", but what is the order of them? That is, which one is the highest? Which one is modest higher? And which one is middle higher?
Update: Thank you all.
I have searched by myself and spotted that, according to Taxonomy, hyperfamily is larger than superfamily. Moreover, as Kris, Mitch and Robusto pointed out, hyper is higher than super in many other usage such as hypersonic/supersonic and hypermarket/supermarket. In addition super is higher than ultra in Audiology. So it seems
ultra < super < hyper
in common usage. On the other hand, in taxonomic ranks of biological classification, the rank hypoorder is larger than suborder, which is larger than infraorder. So a conclusion seems can be made as infra < sub < hypo.
Overall, does it seem the order is
infra < sub < hypo < ultra < super < hyper
in most usages?
Best Answer
These are not English words, but Greek (hyper) and Latin (super, ultra) prepositions.
Hyper and super mean exactly the same thing, 'above' -- they're cognates, in fact; Greek initial S went to H, and Y was the Greek letter corresponding to Latin V (or U). Greek is of course more prestigious than Latin, but it's not bigger.
Ultra, on the other hand, means 'beyond', as in ultraviolet or ultra vires 'beyond (the powers of) men'.
So I guess ultra would be the ultimate (same root, btw), at least for English speakers who've studied Latin and Greek.
All of them.