subgroup

[ suhb-groop ]

noun

1. a subordinate group; a division of a group.
2. Chemistry. a division of a group in the periodic table.
3. Mathematics. a subset of a group that is closed under the group operation and in which every element has an inverse in the subset.

subgroup

/ ˈsʌbˌɡruːp /

noun

1. a distinct and often subordinate division of a group
2. a mathematical group whose members are members of another group, both groups being subject to the same rule of combination

Word History and Origins

Origin of subgroup¹

First recorded in 1835–45; sub- + group

Example Sentences

The vaccine’s efficacy rate was lower — 42 percent — in preventing moderate to severe illness in a subgroup of adults older than 60 who had medical risk factors.

From Washington Post

This means in the other subgroups, there were slight decreases or no effect on drunk driving.

From Vox

While the company provided numbers for how many trial participants were over 65 and from various ethnic communities, the company didn’t say how the vaccine performed in each of these subgroups.

From Vox

It isn’t known how well the shot works in key subgroups, such as the elderly.

From Fortune

It would be a red flag, he said, if officials are heavily encouraging people who weren’t well represented in the trials to take the vaccine, or if there’s not public data on how effectiveness varied for different subgroups.

From FiveThirtyEight

Heroin overdose deaths from 2010 to 2012 increased in every single subgroup examined in the CDC report.

From The Daily Beast

I think one of the main issues would be that there may be a subgroup of people who may run into problems with compulsive use.

From The Daily Beast

It means treating women not as some alien species or subgroup.

From The Daily Beast

There's a subgroup that both attends and mocks, but it's tiny.

From The Daily Beast

Integrated Jews are not a foreign subgroup in France or Canada.

From The Daily Beast

The growth of cities is the visible sign of an upward movement of labor in the subgroup series.

From Project Gutenberg

If improvements were long confined to one subgroup, they might send labor into other subgroups and even into other general groups.

From Project Gutenberg

Some naturalists make this genus the type of a distinct subgroup, Centurioneae.

From Project Gutenberg

On no other evidence would we be justified in ascribing 200 persons to each subgroup.

From Project Gutenberg

In 1839, Waterhouse referred the genus Geomys to his family Arvicolidae, considered by him to be a subgroup of muroids.

From Project Gutenberg