subscription

American  

[suhb-skrip-shuhn] / səbˈskrɪp ʃən /

noun

• subscriptions
  plural

1. a sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment, investment, etc.

2. the right to receive a periodical for a sum paid, usually for an agreed number of issues.

3. an arrangement for presenting a series of concerts, plays, etc., that one may attend by the payment of a membership fee.

   to purchase a 10-concert subscription.

4. the right to receive a service or access text online for a certain period of time.

   a subscription to a media streaming service; a subscription to an online encyclopedia; a satellite-TV subscription.

5. Chiefly British. the dues paid by a member of a club, society, etc.

6. a fund raised through sums of money subscribed.

7. a sum subscribed.

8. the act of appending one's signature or mark, as to a document.

9. a signature or mark thus appended.

10. something written beneath or at the end of a document or the like.

11. a document to which a signature is attached.

12. assent, agreement, or approval expressed verbally or by signing one's name.

13. Ecclesiastical. assent to or acceptance of a body of principles or doctrines, the purpose of which is to establish uniformity.

14. Church of England. formal acceptance of the Thirty-nine Articles of 1563 and the Book of Common Prayer.

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subscription British  

/ səbˈskrɪpʃən /

noun

1. a payment or promise of payment for consecutive issues of a magazine, newspaper, book, etc, over a specified period of time

2. 1. the advance purchase of tickets for a series of concerts, operas, etc

   2. ( as modifier )

      a subscription concert

3. an amount of money paid or promised, as to a charity, or the fund raised in this way

4. an offer to buy shares or bonds issued by a company

5. the act of signing one's name to a document, etc

6. a signature or other appendage attached to the bottom of a document, etc

7. agreement, consent, or acceptance expressed by or as if by signing one's name

8. a signed document, statement, etc

9. the membership dues or fees paid to a society or club

10. acceptance of a fixed body of articles of faith, doctrines, or principles laid down as universally binding upon all the members of a Church

11. med that part of a written prescription directing the pharmacist how to mix and prepare the ingredients: rarely seen today as modern drugs are mostly prepackaged by the manufacturers

12. an advance order for a new product

13. 1. the sale of books, etc, prior to printing

    2. ( as modifier )

       a subscription edition

14. archaic allegiance; submission

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonsubscription
  noun
• presubscription
  noun
• resubscription
  noun
• prosubscription
  adjective
• subscriptive
  adjective
• subscriptively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• subscriptions
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of subscription

1400–50; late Middle English < Old French subscription < Latin subscrīptiōn- (stem of subscrīptiō ) “something written beneath, signature, subscription” equivalent to subscrīpt ( us ) ( see subscript) + -iōn- -ion

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Explanation

A subscription is an agreement conveyed with a signature. It's also buying a bunch of issues of a periodical, such as a year's subscription to "The New York Times" newspaper. See the word script in subscription? That's a clue that this word has to do with writing. Specifically, a subscription is the act of signing something that you agree to, like a petition. You can have a subscription to a belief too. Also, when you order a magazine or newspaper's future issues, you buy a subscription. Subscriptions like this usually last one year: you pay, and the magazine agrees to send you copies until your subscription runs out.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

subscription subscriptions

Anjali Sud, most recently the chief executive officer of the ad-supported streaming service Tubi, is taking the top job at the subscription audio entertainment company SiriusXM.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 9, 2026

Dedicated apps typically hook viewers by letting them watch the first few episodes for free, before then requiring a subscription.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026

The offering puts it in a better spot to compete with Uber, which has its own subscription program that waives delivery fees for Uber Eats orders.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 5, 2026

Murdoch touted the growth of Fox One and said it is fulfilling its mission of signing on consumers who no longer have pay TV, but the company has not revealed subscription numbers.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

For my ninth birthday last year, Grandma gave me a subscription to National Geographic, which she calls “the National Geographic.”

From "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer

CandyJar costs £49 for one year, while DramaBox costs £110, but most microdrama apps allow binge-watchers to buy weekly subscriptions or watch ads in exchange for free episodes.

From BBC ● Nov. 8, 2026

Many hospitals depended on charitable donations, subscriptions and fundraising events to survive.

From BBC ● Nov. 5, 2026

“We don’t believe in hiding features, especially safety features, behind subscriptions or as an upsell,” Comma.ai Chief Product Officer Adeeb Shihadeh said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 29, 2026

Li spoke of “monetizing our AI products through subscriptions, transactions, advertising ...”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 23, 2026

What I didn’t tell them was that I’d have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I’d go to school in the fall.

From "The Lightning Thief" by Rick Riordan

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