subsidiary
Americanadjective
-
serving to assist or supplement; auxiliary; supplementary.
-
subordinate or secondary.
subsidiary issues.
-
of or relating to a subsidiary.
noun
-
subsidiaries
plural
-
a subsidiary thing or person.
-
Music. a subordinate theme or subject.
adjective
-
serving to aid or supplement; auxiliary
-
of lesser importance; subordinate in function
noun
-
a person who or thing that is subsidiary
-
short for subsidiary company
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of subsidiary
1535–45; < Latin subsidiārius, equivalent to subsidi ( um ) ( see subsidy) + -ārius -ary
Explanation
If a company belongs to another company, then the owned company is a subsidiary. When a large company bought your small business, you became a subsidiary. It still hurts to call them the parent company, since you publish novels and they make toilet paper. The adjective form of subsidiary describes something that is of secondary importance or that functions in a supporting capacity. In addition to running the band program, you're a member of several subsidiary committees like the fund raising committee and the hospitality committee. Traffic on the road was light when you drove outside the city, but as more subsidiary roads joined with the main one, traffic quickly became congested.
Vocabulary lists containing subsidiary
Power Prefix: sub-
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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.
See Examples For:
Last week, the company halted its review of a potential U.S. listing of flash-memory subsidiary Solidigm, citing unfavorable market conditions and recent share-price trends.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 28, 2026
Scout Motors, another Volkswagen subsidiary, announced plans for a South Carolina factory in 2023.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 25, 2026
However, its US shares fell more than eight percent Thursday after it said it was scrapping plans for an initial public offering for its US subsidiary Solidigm, citing "market conditions and share price trends".
From Barron's ● Oct. 23, 2026
The company also has a Los Angeles-based live-action subsidiary, Laika Live Action.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026
Up to this point in musical history - the first few years of the twentieth century - ethnic folk elements had been co-opted into classical music as subsidiary exotic flavouring.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed those subsidiaries aren’t part of the voluntary buyout program.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 26, 2026
Between August and September more than 30 haze source points were recorded on land managed by its two Indonesian subsidiaries, according to Greenpeace.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Noposion subsidiaries have sued Planasa alleging they received low quality plants from the company.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 15, 2026
As for HPE, Conti said that networking is the “earnings engine,” given its ownership of networking subsidiaries Juniper Networks and Aruba Networks under the umbrella of HPE Networking.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 1, 2026
“That? I don’t know. But I’ve got a notion. Remember, those subsidiaries were Dave’s ‘fingers.’
From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
