Insubordination

noun

noun ·6 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The quality or state of being insubordinate; disobedience to lawful authority; specifically, an employee's failure or refusal to comply with a request or an assignment given by his/her supervisor. countable, uncountable

    "Green, who served as a technical manager in the network's Washington bureau, charged in her suit that she was subject to "repeated acts of insubordination by white male engineers and technicians, with the effect of the erosion and undermining of [her] ability to carry out her duties as supervisor.""

  2. 2
    an insubordinate act wordnet
  3. 3
    defiance of authority wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
civil disobediencedefiancedisobediencefrowardnessindisciplineindocility

Example

More examples

"I don't tolerate insubordination."

Etymology

From in- + subordination, on the model of French insubordination.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.