subcontractor

American  

[suhb-kon-trak-ter, suhb-kon-, suhb-kuhn-trak-ter] / sʌbˈkɒn træk tər, ˈsʌbˌkɒn-, ˌsʌb kənˈtræk tər /

noun

1. Law. a person who or business that contracts to provide some service or material necessary for the performance of another's contract.

2. a person or business firm contracted to do part of another's work.

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subcontractor British  

/ ˌsʌbkənˈtræktə /

noun

1. a person, company, etc, that enters into a subcontract, esp a firm that undertakes to complete part of another's contract

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Etymology

Origin of subcontractor

First recorded in 1835–45; sub- + contractor

Explanation

A subcontractor is someone who agrees to perform part of a larger job. If you've been hired to renovate a house but you're not an expert plumber, you could hire a subcontractor to install new pipes. If you were building a new house, you might hire a contractor to do the job. While the contractor would be responsible for the entire project, she might pay subcontractors to do specific tasks, like digging the foundation, installing windows, or wiring the new house for electricity. You would pay the contractor for the whole project, and she would pay the subcontractors for the work they performed.

Example Sentences

The Pentagon has gone beyond declining to buy from Anthropic by designating it a supply-chain risk, which prevents Anthropic from working as a subcontractor on other Pentagon contracts.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 10, 2026

A subcontractor unfamiliar with modular construction might bid a project higher than they otherwise would to compensate for the uncertainty.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 14, 2026

It is also already a subcontractor on Space Force projects likely to get rolled up into the Golden Dome program, Canaccord Genuity analyst Austin Moeller told Barron’s.

From Barron's • Jan. 23, 2026

And on Friday, one subcontractor told the BBC his firm would do up to 15 drop-offs daily from a hotel in south east London to a doctors surgery around two miles away.

From BBC • Nov. 28, 2025

As company chairman Gwin Follis was a personal friend of Neylan’s—and the company itself had been Berkeley’s subcontractor on the MTA—arrangements were concluded rapidly.

From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik