Subdominant

noun

noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The fourth tone of a scale.
  2. 2
    (music) the fourth note of the diatonic scale wordnet
  3. 3
    The triad built on the subdominant tone.

Synonyms

All synonyms
dominantkeykey signaturekeynotemajorminor

Example

More examples

"In this section, the piece transitions to the subdominant key."

Etymology

From sub- + dominant.

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