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subtropical

American  
[suhb-trop-i-kuhl] / sʌbˈtrɒp ɪ kəl /

adjective

  1. bordering on the tropics; nearly tropical.

  2. pertaining to or occurring in a region between tropical and temperate; subtorrid; semitropical.

noun

  1. a subtropical plant.

subtropical British  
/ sʌbˈtrɒpɪkəl /

adjective

  1. situated in, used in, characteristic of, or relating to the subtropics

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
subtropical Scientific  
/ sŭb-trŏp′ĭ-kəl /

  1. Relating to the regions of the Earth bordering on the tropics, just north of the Tropic of Cancer or just south of the Tropic of Capricorn. Subtropical regions are the warmest parts of the two Temperate Zones.

Etymology

Origin of subtropical

First recorded in 1835–45; sub- + tropical

Vocabulary lists containing subtropical

East Asia - Middle School

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East Asia - High School

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Weather and Climate - Middle School

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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 fuels tropical and subtropical storms and exacerbates ongoing sea-ice loss in the polar regions."

From Barron's • Mar. 23, 2026

By examining samples from many different populations, the team reconstructed the evolutionary tree of Balanophora and traced how it spread across subtropical regions of East Asia.

From Science Daily • Dec. 20, 2025

“This system will be drawing up copious amounts of subtropical moisture from the south,” Bryan Allegretto wrote in the weather blog Palisades Tahoe.

From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 18, 2025

With its Bronze Age origins, Ancient Roman traces, Byzantine and Norman monuments and subtropical flair, Bari makes for a fine contrast with the Renaissance grandeur and contemporary design of central and northern Italian towns.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 26, 2025

Bright plastic bags blew across its viscous, weedy surface like subtropical flying-flowers.

From "The God of Small Things" by Arundhati Roy

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.