subdivide
Americanverb (used with object)
-
subdivides,
present (3rd person singular)
-
subdivided,
past participle, past
-
subdividing
present participle
-
to divide (that which has already been divided) into smaller parts; divide again after a first division.
-
to divide into parts.
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to divide (a plot, tract of land, etc.) into building lots.
verb (used without object)
-
subdivides,
present (3rd person singular)
-
subdivided,
past participle, past
-
subdividing
present participle
verb
-
to divide (something) resulting from an earlier division
-
(tr) to divide (land) into lots for sale
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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subdividesimple
-
subdividessimple
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have subdividedperfect
-
has subdividedperfect
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am subdividingprogressive
-
are subdividingprogressive
-
is subdividingprogressive
-
have been subdividingperfect progressive
-
has been subdividingperfect progressive
Past
-
subdividedsimple
-
had subdividedperfect
-
was subdividingprogressive
-
were subdividingprogressive
-
had been subdividingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of subdivide
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English word from Late Latin word subdīvīdere. See sub-, divide
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:
My initial thought is that, unless local planning laws allow you to subdivide the property, your son will be building a house on land that you own — not on property that your son owns.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
And so even in the legislature, we subdivide power again between Senate and house.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 7, 2026
Or, he could apply to subdivide the lots into multiple smaller ownerships.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 21, 2025
Unlike state criminal codes, the federal criminal code does not “grade” or subdivide most of its white-collar offenses.
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2023
But she was probably being modest, because if you looked harder at Weisberg’s life you could probably subdivide her experiences into fifteen or twenty worlds.
From "The Tipping Point" by Malcolm Gladwell
It starts broad with three domains: Archaea, Bacteria, and Eukarya, then subdivides into kingdoms, continuing to narrow itself down all the way to species.
From Salon ● Dec. 10, 2022
Yet another, June Living, subdivides homes and individual apartments into single-room rentals.
From The New Yorker ● Sep. 13, 2018
Anchored by an instantly likable teen, "Becoming Us" uses a screen that often subdivides into video blogs, FaceTime chats and texts to make its preference for selfie over soapbox instantly clear.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2015
During the fourth and fifth weeks, the anterior neural tube dilates and subdivides to form vesicles that will become the brain structures.
From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013
I suppose you would call him that, for he travels about the country buying tracts of land which he afterward subdivides and sells.
From The Seven Cardinal Sins: Envy and Indolence by Eug?ne Sue
Each seven-year cycle can be divided into two cycles of three and a half years, which are then subdivided into a “favorable” 18-month period and an “unfavorable” 18-month period.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Tens of thousands of people housed in these monuments to pre-revolutionary Cuba, which were subdivided into apartments after Fidel Castro took power in 1959, live on the edge, literally.
From Barron's ● Jun. 17, 2026
An anonymous sheet by an Austrian designer from about 1515 shows the whole operation compressed into a single image of a finial, upon which are inscribed the subdivided squares that generated it.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
It also features five precision-calibrated plates and degree divisions "so fine they are subdivided down to a third of a degree".
From BBC ● Apr. 25, 2026
Even these may need to be subdivided further into the various phases of an artist’s development.
From "History of Art, Volume 1" by H.W. Janson
Find out why subdividing the land is not allowed.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 8, 2026
About 340 million years ago, leaves sported veins that branched like a tree, with a main “trunk” subdividing into multiple branches.
From Science Magazine ● Apr. 30, 2024
Peter Gleick, author of more than a dozen books on water, orchestrates a voyage through the history of this precious and finite commodity, subdividing a rich timeline into three eras.
From Scientific American ● Jun. 20, 2023
“We went in, and it was like on each floor, every room had cloth partitions, like blankets held from the ceiling, subdividing it into multiple residents’ cubes.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2022
Each contains a dozen small scenes from the Old Testament, the four lancets of each window subdividing these scenes into three rows of four each.
From Stained Glass Tours in England by Charles Hitchcock Sherrill
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
