Since the formulation of the AdS/CFT correspondence 1, there has been great interest in space-times which are asymptotically anti-de Sitter, and the properties of the Kerr-Newman-anti-de Sitter (KN-AdS) space-time in various dimensions have been extensively studied 2. However, the properties of classical or quantum fields propagating on this background have not been widely studied, and, in particular, the question of whether super-radiance occurs has not been addressed. This is an important issue since a detailed understanding of classical super-radiance is necessary before tackling quantum field theory on rotating black hole geometries 3. We considered a classical scalar field on the KN-AdS background 4, and examined the form of the separated field modes. Given the structure of infinity in asymptotically anti-de Sitter space-times, we paid particular attention to the boundary conditions at infinity. Unlike the situation for asymptotically flat Kerr-Newman black holes 5, super-radiance is not inevitable. It depends partly on our choice of boundary condition at infinity. For reflective boundary conditions at infinity, there is no super-radiance. On the other hand, if we consider transparent boundary conditions at infinity, then the presence of super-radiance depends on our choice of positive frequency. For those KN-AdS black holes possessing a globally time-like Killing vector, then the natural definition of positive frequency implies that there are no super-radiant modes. For other KN-AdS black holes, then this same definition of positive frequency again leads to no super-radiance.