subservience
Americannoun
-
the fact of serving in a subordinate position or role.
There is no hierarchy, no dominance or subservience of any member, in this vision of the faith community.
-
a servile or excessively submissive quality or manner.
Was I so weak that a child could reduce me to this fawning subservience—without will, without character?
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the fact or quality of being useful, or the state of being used, to promote a certain purpose or end.
Popular nationalists decried Irish subservience to British commercial interests, and promised to strengthen economic sovereignty.
Etymology
Origin of subservience
First recorded in 1645–55; subservi(ent) ( def. ) + -ence ( def. )
Explanation
Something that serves a purpose for someone or something else demonstrates subservience. Something that's a means to an end has subservience, like a character whose introduction has subservience to the book's plot. You can also use the word subservience to describe submissive or servile behavior, like the subservience of an obedient dog who always fetches your slippers. The word originally meant simply "usefulness," and it came from the Latin root word subservientem, "assist, or lend support."
Vocabulary lists containing subservience
Black Boy
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Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
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Steelheart
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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.
It helped undo the damage done by the subservience in “I Dream of Jeannie.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 2, 2025
He is emotionally weakened to the point of subservience — to tech, to conspiracy, and humor; anything that will restore some meaning.
From Salon • Apr. 19, 2025
But what Raisi lacked in charisma, he more than made up for in subservience; the man, frankly, was a toady doing the supreme leader’s bidding.
From Seattle Times • May 24, 2024
Feminists have spent the past 150 years painstakingly chipping away at the laws that forced our subservience.
From Slate • Apr. 17, 2024
Women exchanged the maids’ uniforms of subservience for the white chadors of emancipation.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
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.
