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:
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
"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
He and his wife, Cheri, bought a comfortable home in a tidy subdivision here in the heart of Bayou Country.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 11, 2026
Beyond its luxurious features, the home’s location within the prized Patricks Purchase subdivision also holds strong appeal for families, with some of the area’s best schools just a short drive away.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 20, 2025
The Pickett estate was silent, sterile, and endless—like a newly built housing subdivision before actual people move into it.
From "Turtles All the Way Down" 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
Decades ago, state lawmakers were concerned about too many farms being turned into new subdivisions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 2, 2026
Each classification in the Hornbostel-Sachs system has divisions aplenty, followed by subdivisions and further subdivisions, for a total of more than 300 categories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
In 2025, Texas passed bills legalizing housing on commercially zoned land and subdivisions of starter homes, which were rendered difficult or illegal to build by municipal zoning laws, large lot requirements, or other design requirements.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 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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