How to Use subsistence in a Sentence

subsistence

noun
  • Farming is their means of subsistence.
  • They depended on hunting and fishing for subsistence.
  • Fifty-six percent of the statewide subsistence harvest is made up of fish.
    — Paige Vega, Vox, 3 July 2024
  • Never have so many risen so quickly from the pit of abject subsistence.
    — Vincent Carroll, The Denver Post, 18 Feb. 2017
  • If wages rose above subsistence, this would plunge the whole system into ruin.
    — Marilynne Robinson, Harper's magazine, 10 June 2019
  • As a subsistence farmer, Bingala didn't have the resources to start over.
    — Lauren Sommer, NPR, 21 Nov. 2024
  • The fish are important to the tribes for subsistence and as a vital part of their culture.
    — Kale Williams, OregonLive.com, 25 May 2018
  • Guns are a part of Alaska’s culture and a core tool of a subsistence lifestyle.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 7 Aug. 2022
  • Most Kanaks subsistence-farm yams, taros, sweet potatoes and bananas.
    — A. Odysseus Patrick, Washington Post, 1 June 2018
  • Amid the drudgery of scraping a subsistence from the sea, a man retains an innate sense of his worth and raises his sights.
    — Heller McAlpin, Christian Science Monitor, 18 Nov. 2025
  • But these plants mean more than just subsistence to Indigenous people.
    — Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic, 7 July 2020
  • In a town where many people make minimum wage, a subsistence lifestyle is often out of reach.
    — Devi Lockwood, Wired, 21 Sep. 2021
  • The idea is that these people should work in order to work, with something like subsistence as a side benefit.
    — Marilynne Robinson, The New York Review of Books, 11 June 2020
  • In the meantime, subsistence foods are stored in three 40-foot village freezer vans.
    — Author: Rachel D'oro, Anchorage Daily News, 26 Nov. 2019
  • It is also based on the subsistence needs and values extending back thousands of years.
    — Vogue, 24 Feb. 2023
  • Grove said at least 20 others are doing the same thing, to keep the subsistence funds flowing to those out of work.
    — Editorial Board Star Tribune, Star Tribune, 11 Dec. 2020
  • Apache people still harvest acorns from the oaks for subsistence and as a cultural resource.
    — Debra Utacia Krol, The Arizona Republic, 12 Dec. 2020
  • And the warming waters affect seals and birds that locals rely on for subsistence.
    — Alena Naiden, Anchorage Daily News, 9 Aug. 2023
  • Dilemmas of abundance are painful; the diseases of subsistence are deadly.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
  • But its purpose was recreation, not subsistence, and it was made for the benefit of the middle class, not the poor.
    — Eula Biss, The New Yorker, 8 June 2022
  • The filling of cheese and bread crumbs also reflects an area in which sheep rearing was the main form of subsistence for centuries.
    — Rachel Roddy, New York Times, 13 May 2024
  • Most residents of the area are subsistence farmers who see the four-lane road as a luxury for rich people.
    — Jake Maxwell Watts, WSJ, 13 Oct. 2018
  • Once a week, Indigenous islanders were allowed to hunt or fish for subsistence.
    — WIRED, 15 July 2023
  • Its three schools now operate on a subsistence calendar, where students take time off in spring to hunt birds and in the fall to hunt moose.
    — Sean Maguire, Anchorage Daily News, 26 May 2023
  • Alaska Native coastal communities hunt all three seals for meat and hides as part of a subsistence life.
    — Washington Post, 12 Sep. 2019
  • Most of the vendors were subsistence farmers and small-time fishermen with meager harvests to sell.
    — Smita Sharma, National Geographic, 28 Sep. 2020
  • In the mid-1990s a couple of green sturgeon were caught in a subsistence net on the Naknek beach.
    — John Schandelmeier, Alaska Dispatch News, 29 June 2017
  • The dispute in Bahia was sparked by complaints from subsistence farmers who claim they had been forced from government land.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 24 Apr. 2018
  • The move could result in the loss of subsistence benefits for as many as four million poor, single adults over the next few years, experts say.
    — Glenn Thrush, New York Times, 15 Mar. 2018
  • Worl highlighted how the fish is a source of pride for the people in Alaska who engage in subsistence living.
    — Sophia Carlisle, Anchorage Daily News, 22 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subsistence.' 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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