subscribe
Americanverb (used with object)
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subscribes,
present (3rd person singular)
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subscribed,
past participle, past
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subscribing
present participle
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to pledge, as by signing an agreement, to give or pay (a sum of money) as a contribution, gift, or investment.
He subscribed $6,000 for the new church.
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to give or pay in fulfillment of such a pledge.
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to append one's signature or mark to (a document), as in approval or attestation of its contents.
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to attest by or as by signing.
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to append, as one's signature, at the bottom of a document or the like; sign.
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to agree or assent to.
verb (used without object)
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subscribes,
present (3rd person singular)
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subscribed,
past participle, past
-
subscribing
present participle
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to pledge, as by signing an agreement, to give or pay money as a contribution, gift, or investment.
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to give or pay money in fulfillment of such a pledge.
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to obtain or have a subscription to a publication, concert series, service, etc..
She subscribes to two food magazines.
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to give one's consent; sanction.
I will not subscribe to popular fallacies.
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to sign one's name to a document.
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to give approval to the contents of a document by signing one's name.
verb
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(usually foll by to) to pay or promise to pay (a sum of money) as a contribution (to a fund or charity, for a magazine, etc), esp at regular intervals
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to inscribe or sign (one's name, etc) at the end of a contract, will, or other document
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to give support or approval
to subscribe to the theory of transubstantiation
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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subscribernoun
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subscribershipnoun
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presubscribeverb
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resubscribeverb
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nonsubscribingadjective
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subscribableadjective
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unsubscribedadjective
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unsubscribingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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subscribesimple
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subscribessimple
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have subscribedperfect
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has subscribedperfect
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am subscribingprogressive
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are subscribingprogressive
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is subscribingprogressive
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have been subscribingperfect progressive
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has been subscribingperfect progressive
Past
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subscribedsimple
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had subscribedperfect
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was subscribingprogressive
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were subscribingprogressive
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had been subscribingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of subscribe
1375–1425; late Middle English subscriben < Latin subscrībere, equivalent to sub- sub- + scrībere to write
Explanation
If you subscribe to something, you sign up to receive it regularly. If you subscribe to the New York Times, it's delivered to your door every morning or you get online access. When you subscribe to a belief, you adopt it as your own. You might subscribe to the notion that children should be seen and not heard, or you might wholeheartedly subscribe to your town's proposal to save the wetlands. A less common use of subscribe is to sign your name on something, reflecting the origin of the word, which comes from the Latin subscribere, "to write below," that is, to sign at the bottom of a document.
Vocabulary lists containing subscribe
Latin Root "sub" Words
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Latin Love: Scribere: To write (scrib, scrip)
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The Taming of the Shrew
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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:
Once the infrastructure is in place on the ground, farmers would need to subscribe to Starlink to use the service.
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
If you would like to subscribe to Slate Plus and the many riches it offers, use promo code SURGE25 at checkout for a 25 percent discount on a full-year subscription.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
You can subscribe here to get the research when it goes live.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 31, 2026
As a longtime SoCal resident who moved to Dallas two years ago, I still subscribe to The Times online to follow the Rams, Lakers, Angels and Dodgers.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Naturally, I don’t subscribe to the obvious fallacy that every society promptly adopts every innovation that would be useful for it.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Evidently, Christine Lagarde, Europe’s top central banker, subscribes to Keynes’s wisdom.
From Barron's ● Jun. 16, 2026
Which my husband subscribes to, and sees automatically in his calendar app.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 13, 2026
The average U.S. household now subscribes to four paid streaming services, costing them $69 per month, according to a digital media report from Deloitte.
From MarketWatch ● Dec. 5, 2025
While Keridan cut Disney+, her family still subscribes to YouTube Premium and Paramount+.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 21, 2025
My mom generally subscribes to the more positive, optimistic school of thought, and my dad believes the doomsayers are underplaying the truth.
From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman
The last step was drizzling a tablespoon of good olive oil over the batter which was a trick I had learned in one of the myriad baking newsletters I now subscribed to.
From Salon ● Sep. 26, 2026
Last week, it began testing free trials for people who had never subscribed in a number of markets around the world.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 16, 2026
About 6.3 million accounts have subscribed to a premium plan on X.
From MarketWatch ● May 21, 2026
Currently, the California Energy Commission handles the highly subscribed, state-funded program, which serves Californians in every legislative district.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 14, 2026
Before he had entered the service he had not been much interested in warfare; now he bought every book about war, read every report, subscribed to the New York papers, studied maps.
From "East of Eden" by John Steinbeck
Eric Saavedra, 42, pleaded guilty in February 2025 to one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of making and subscribing to a false tax return.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 28, 2026
Bernstein expects Tencent’s agentic AI rollout to happen gradually and monetization to come via merchants subscribing to the new agentic AI services to get more traffic.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 7, 2026
To cobble together the package of content you want requires subscribing to multiple services at ever-increasing cost.
From MarketWatch ● May 28, 2026
Over the past four weeks of subscribing to Good Inside, I’ve taken this approach more.
From Slate ● May 10, 2026
“I’m guessing you saw the latest vlog and you’re not too impressed. Whereas I’m impressed you’re actually subscribing to me. See, I see you in my channel’s new subscribers list from yesterday: janjan123,” Sausun says.
From "Saints and Misfits" by S.K. Ali
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
