superordinate
subordinate
verb[ T ]
uk /səˈbɔː.dɪ.neɪt/ us /səˈbɔːr.dən.eɪt/
to put someone or something into a less important position: 使从属于，使处于次要地位
Her personal life has been subordinated to her career.她将个人生活置于事业之下。

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Promoting staff
aggrandizement
anointment
ascend
ascension
career ladder
downgrade someone/something to something
elevate
elevation
enthrone
exalt
fast track
Peter Principle
promote
promotion
reinstall
reinstallation
relegate
waiver
wilderness
wilderness yearsidiom

You can also find related words, phrases, and synonyms in the topics:

Of little or less importance

subordinate | American Dictionary

subordinate
adjective
us/səˈbɔr·dən·ət/
having a lower or less important position:
I’m happy in a subordinate role.

subordinate

noun[ C ]us/səˈbɔr·dən·ət/
You need to assign this job to a subordinate.
subordinate
verb[ T ]
us/səˈbɔr·dənˌeɪt/
to treat someone or something as less important than something else:
Japan has a tradition of subordinating individual desires to group goals.

subordination

noun[ U ]us/səˌbɔr·dənˈeɪ·ʃən/
She studies patterns of domination and subordination among orangutans.

subordinate | Business English

subordinate
adjective
uk /səˈbɔːdənət/us
WORKPLACE
having less power or a lower position than someone else in a company or an organization:
subordinate to sbThe condition of motherhood often makes women subordinate to men in the workplace.
a subordinate employee/position/roleBefore reaching the level of head chef, there was the hard work and subordinate positions in kitchens.
Women are in the minority in the office and are of subordinate status to most of their male colleagues.
less important than something else:
Primary legislation can be amended; subordinate legislation cannot.
subordinate to sthThe institute will make the acquired debt subordinate to any new bank lending.
[ before noun ] FINANCE
→ subordinated
subordinate
noun[ C ]
uk /səˈbɔːdənət/us
WORKPLACE
a person who has a less important position than you in a company or an organization:
Senior managers had to convince their colleagues and subordinates of the value of this approach.
subordinate
verb[ T ]
uk /səˈbɔːdɪneɪt/us
to put someone or something into a less important position:
Management found itself subordinated to the markets.

Examples of subordinate

subordinate
Certainly, subordinating local definitions to the dictum of the science of race required negotiation, and in some cases even training.
He points out that his example (5.26) - given here in (1) - ' with how understood as modifying treat their subordinates, is completely impossible ' (147).
Although these subordinating conjunction markers have lost their criterion of identity in semantics, they still retain noun-like properties in syntax.
Rather, legal authorities attempt to guide conduct by affecting the intentional agency of their subordinates.
In the hands and minds of some, chemistry was subordinated to the dictates and needs of medicine.
In the following examples, it may appear that these subordinating conjunctions can be modified by a demonstrative determiner.
Authentic texts also displayed a tendency toward having a higher incidence of adjectives and subordinating conjunctions and prepositions, but these findings only approached significance.
They also allow the dominant state to offer more valuable benefits to subordinates, such as security guarantees, military aid, and so on.
The evident physical presence of music became subordinated to the higher reality of transcendental perfection.
As an act of will, choice is intellectually motivated, and some motives are subordinated to others.
There were a succession of such men-leaders of pay demands, subordinates with their own methods.
His words and deeds defined the bad citizen inversely : one who succumbed to self-interested ambition and subordinated the public good to the personal.
If superiors do not treat their subordinates with respect and dignity, why should people treat those below themselves any differently?
The subordinating conjunction in this case is a member of the set subordinator.
However, case-by-case consideration acknowledges that academic freedom may, under unusual or extreme circumstances, be justifiably subordinated to other fundamental values.
See all examples of subordinate
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.