subdivision
Americannoun
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subdivisions
plural
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the act or fact of subdividing.
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a product of subdividing, as a section of a department.
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a portion of land divided into lots for real-estate development.
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Botany, Mycology. a category of related classes within a division or phylum.
noun
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the process, instance, or state of being divided again following upon an earlier division
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a portion that is the result of subdividing
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a tract of land for building resulting from subdividing land
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a housing development built on such a tract
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of subdivision
1545–55; < Late Latin subdīvīsiōn- (stem of subdīvīsiō ), equivalent to subdīvīs ( us ) (past participle of subdīvīdere to subdivide ) + -iōn- -ion
Explanation
When something large or complex is split into smaller parts, you can call each part a subdivision. The act of separating something into parts is also called subdivision. In North America, when someone mentions a subdivision, they probably mean a suburban neighborhood. When planned communities are designed, developers subdivide the plots of land to make it easier to sell them. If a botanist talks about subdivisions, she means something completely different: a ranked group of plants. No matter how the word is used, a subdivision is basically a smaller section of a section, or a part of something that's divided.
Vocabulary lists containing subdivision
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Woody Fincham, a real-estate appraiser in Virginia, agrees that a data center going up right next door to a residential property or a subdivision could have an effect on property values.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 4, 2026
Who knew the proverb holds even when the classroom is a subdivision and the teacher is a real-estate developer?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
The Craftsman-style subdivision, built on a former school site, was newly completed and mostly sold when the Eaton fire destroyed seven of its 16 homes and rendered the rest uninhabitable.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
"This reflects a complex history of population subdivision, in which different populations lived in different regions and habitat types."
From Science Daily ● May 20, 2026
We made a wheels-screeching turn into a subdivision with eight-foot-high stucco walls.
From "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green
Fitch’s rankings include both the larger metropolitan statistical areas, as well as metropolitan divisions, which are subdivisions of larger metro areas.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 14, 2026
In 2025 it enacted SB15, which provided for lot size flexibility in new residential subdivisions by overriding some minimum local lot-size requirements.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
Housing reforms that increase supply, such as allowing smaller lots in new subdivisions, permitting duplexes, townhomes, and backyard cottages on existing lots, and changing zoning laws to allow housing nearer to jobs, are land-use issues.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Still, in 1965, as agriculture of all kinds was being crowded out by subdivisions, California enacted the Williamson Act to give tax breaks to landowners who kept their property dedicated to agriculture.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2026
But not every musical system in the world opted for the same number of subdivisions.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
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