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Synonyms

subscriber

American  
[suhb-skrahy-ber] / səbˈskraɪ bər /

noun

  • subscribers
    plural
  1. a person, company, etc., that subscribes, as to a publication or concert series.

  2. a homeowner, apartment dweller, business, etc., that pays a monthly charge to be connected to a television cable service.

  3. a person who promises to donate a sum of money, purchase stock, etc.


Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns


Etymology

Origin of subscriber

First recorded in 1590–1600; subscribe + -er 1


Explanation

A subscriber is someone who supports a cause, philosophy, or an actual service, often through paying money. For example, a subscriber to a streaming service may pay a monthly fee to watch the provider's television shows and movies. The word subscriber comes from the Latin roots sub, meaning "under," and scrib, meaning "write." So subscribers can be thought of as those who sign their names at the bottom of a contract — either literally or figuratively. Magazine subscribers literally sign a contract to pay a monthly fee to get the latest issues delivered to them. But subscribers may also just be people who strongly agree with or adopt a philosophy or lifestyle, figuratively "signing on."

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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:

Circuit Court of Appeals, but in April 2025, a divided three-judge panel affirmed the dismissal, agreeing with the district court that Salazar’s newsletter subscription didn’t make him a subscriber under the law.

From Slate ● Oct. 17, 2026

Netflix last conducted major layoffs in 2022 after the streamer reported subscriber losses for the first time in more than a decade.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2026

“This is a group of people just dedicated to a craft,” said Parker Harris, co-founder of Salesforce and an Arion subscriber.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 4, 2026

And the more new conditions a subscriber experienced, the likelier they were to switch to traditional Medicare, the study found.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026

For roughly $100 a year he became a subscriber to 10-K Wizard.

From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis

Now, Argon, which Google says outperforms other frontier models on many benchmarks, is available for developers, enterprises, and some paid subscribers, priced at $2 per million input tokens and $10 per million output tokens.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 2026

The last major redundancy round at Netflix was in 2022, when it cut about 450 jobs after losing subscribers for the first time in more than a decade.

From BBC ● Oct. 14, 2026

The new models can soon be used in Meta's new personal agent app, known as Muse, for paid subscribers only.

From Barron's ● Oct. 12, 2026

The full version of the model, Muse Wonder Full, is available for Muse Code subscribers.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026

Our switchboards have only enough jacks and plugs for Bell subscribers who live here in Washington.

From "The Brightwood Code" by Monica Hesse

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