submissive
Americanadjective
-
inclined or ready to submit or yield to the authority of another; unresistingly or humbly obedient.
submissive servants.
- Antonyms:
- disobedient, rebellious
-
marked by or indicating submission or a yielding to the authority of another.
a submissive reply.
noun
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of submissive
Explanation
When animals live in packs, one animal is usually the dominant leader, while the others fall into more submissive roles. To be submissive is to obey or yield to someone else. When you are submissive, you submit to someone else's will, which literally, you put your own desires lower than theirs. You can see this in the Latin root of submit, submittere, which is formed by sub- "under" + mittere "send, put."
Vocabulary lists containing submissive
100 Top "SAT" Words
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Power Prefix: sub-
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Send a Message: Mit and Miss
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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.
In reality, this win against a submissive Spurs was simply a step on the road from Anfield's anticipation to the glorious realisation that the prize was theirs.
From BBC • Apr. 27, 2025
Judges in places like Massachusetts were customarily paid by appropriation of the colonial legislature, which could withhold or delay payment to judges thought too submissive to British interests.
From Slate • Feb. 26, 2025
The character’s influence lies in her ability to observe and to be “totally alert” to everything happening around her during the conclave, but not in a submissive way.
From Los Angeles Times • Nov. 12, 2024
To test this theory, experts have coded facial behaviour of macaques in more than 3,000 social interactions across the contexts of aggressive, submissive, and affiliative.
From Science Daily • Oct. 5, 2023
But when he came to know him better and realized his true character was the opposite of his submissive conduct, he conceived the malicious suspicion that even the wait for the airplane was an act.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
