SUBSERVIENCE

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does subservience mean? 

• SUBSERVIENCE (noun)
  The noun SUBSERVIENCE has 3 senses:

1. the condition of being something that is useful in reaching an end or carrying out a plan

2. in a subservient state

3. abject or cringing submissiveness

  Familiarity information: SUBSERVIENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUBSERVIENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The condition of being something that is useful in reaching an end or carrying out a plan

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

all his actions were in subservience to the general plan

Hypernyms ("subservience" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Derivation:

subserve (be helpful or useful)

Sense 2

Meaning:

In a subservient state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

subservience; subservientness

Hypernyms ("subservience" is a kind of...):

subordinateness; subsidiarity (secondary importance)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Abject or cringing submissiveness

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

obsequiousness; servility; subservience

Hypernyms ("subservience" is a kind of...):

submissiveness (the trait of being willing to yield to the will of another person or a superior force etc.)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "subservience"):

sycophancy (fawning obsequiousness)

Derivation:

subservient (abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant)

 Context examples 

For the Lilliputians think nothing can be more unjust, than for people, in subservience to their own appetites, to bring children into the world, and leave the burthen of supporting them on the public.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)