How to Use subordination in a Sentence

subordination

noun
  • That was when colonists on the eastern seaboard sought to end their subordination to the British monarchy.
    — Daniel Immerwahr, Harper’s Magazine , 26 Oct. 2022
  • Black veterans were seen as a threat to Jim Crow and racial subordination.
    — Jameelah Nasheed, Essence, 11 Nov. 2022
  • Women were defined in terms of their full subordination to men and in regards to their role in the family and in motherhood.
    — Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager, The Conversation, 7 Mar. 2024
  • As a metaphor for assistantship and subordination, the image is strong.
    — Richard Brody, New Yorker, 16 Apr. 2026
  • The hallmark of the Putin era has been the restoration of state supremacy and the subordination of the rich to Kremlin goals.
    — Fred Weir, The Christian Science Monitor, 15 Feb. 2022
  • In both cases, household and kingdom shared a common model of subordination.
    — David Graeber, Harper's Magazine, 26 Oct. 2021
  • The only way to avoid a subordination discount is to be capital-efficient.
    — Michael Szalontay, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024
  • The other reason a young dog may cuddle relates to how young puppies turn, twist, and roll around on their back displaying respect and subordination.
    — Jennifer Nelson, Southern Living, 28 June 2021
  • More subtly, the subordination of property rights reflected in the empty homes tax measure could spread.
    — Kevin Cole, San Diego Union-Tribune, 26 Mar. 2026
  • What this adds up to, Payne argues, is the near-total subordination of political discourse to group identities.
    — Joshua Rothman, The New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2024
  • The growing subordination and the emergence of new roles in our team organically provoked the creation of group chats without a boss, secrets and less openness within the team.
    — Tatiana Melnichuk, Forbes, 24 Sep. 2021
  • The feature treats huge issues, such as the subordination of a woman’s life to her familial responsibilities.
    — John Hopewell, Variety, 10 Sep. 2021
  • Conversely, the language of diminutiveness—to be down bad, to feel small, to live below your means—suggests submission, subordination, weakness.
    — Brady Brickner-Wood, New Yorker, 4 June 2026
  • Jim Crow was white terrorists enforcing racial subordination outside of the formal legal system.
    — Ryan Cooper, The Week, 2 Sep. 2021
  • The tide has turned and Iranians – particularly women – will no longer settle for exile or subordination.
    — Ana Diamond, CNN, 21 Oct. 2022
  • But Modi’s subordination of institutions has gone even further.
    — Ramachandra Guha, Foreign Affairs, 20 Feb. 2024
  • The armed forces have never aspired or organized to overthrow the government, and their professional ethos of subordination to civilian control is deeply ingrained.
    — Kori Schake, The Atlantic, 30 Nov. 2024
  • As Thomas notes, many Americans’ increasing commitment to racial subordination and slavery loomed large in the background of the cases.
    — Washington Post, 11 Dec. 2020
  • The relationship between a college president and a donor may indeed involve an element of subordination.
    — Nicholas Lemann, The New Yorker, 23 May 2022
  • There is no history of racial subordination associated with Black people.
    — Nikole Hannah-Jones, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
  • Trump’s Oval Office subordination of the Europeans was stunning.
    — John Seiler, Oc Register, 20 Aug. 2025
  • The safety and security of our democracy demands competent civilian control of our armed forces, the subordination of military power to the civil.
    — ABC News, 7 Mar. 2021
  • The law performed colorblindness in a country where the color-conscious subordination of Black people had been a core feature since its eighteenth-century founding.
    — Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2022
  • Helga’s constant irritation is a response to a hostile environment, one filled with bad smells, shabby surroundings, and the indignities of racial subordination.
    — Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic, 30 Jan. 2022
  • Mounting evidence of rogue AI Evidence of rogue AI does not come as a shock to some of the companies whose chatbots have defied subordination.
    — Sasha Rogelberg, Fortune, 3 Apr. 2026
  • The theory emerged during the 1980s and argues that subordination on the basis of race permeates American law and society.
    — Chelsey Cox, USA TODAY, 24 June 2021
  • Corporatism is an ideology that, to a greater or lesser extent, will lead to the subordination of conventional corporate purpose based around shareholder primacy to objectives set elsewhere.
    — Andrew Stuttaford, National Review, 2 Dec. 2022
  • To the young Hannah-Jones, her father’s reverence for America seemed a degrading acceptance of black subordination and marginality.
    — Stanley Kurtz, National Review, 17 Sep. 2020
  • Economic status may fluctuate, but the subordination and vulnerability to state violence that come with being Black is something most Black people expect to contend with from cradle to grave.
    — G'ra Asim, The New Republic, 29 Aug. 2020
  • The domination and subordination at the core of American enslavement shaped the afterlife of Black Americans as freedpeople.
    — Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, The New Yorker, 17 Oct. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subordination.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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