Subpatent

adj, noun

adj, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A legal grant for a subdivision of a patent or giving less than complete ownership rights.

    "It soon became the chief purpose of the company to parcel out these vast holdings, either in individual plantations or, through subpatents, in blocks of thousands of acres."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Infected but asymptomatic or not readily detectable. not-comparable

    "Following the period of patent parasitemia is a subpatent period."

  2. 2
    Less than patent, present but not fully formed or obviously separate from surrounding structures. not-comparable

    "Leaves erect, appressed, or subpatent, lanceolate, acute, serrated, especially towards the extremity, the margins recurved; the nerve reaching nearly to the point; surface papillose; colour pale-yellow-green, especially when dry."

Synonyms

All synonyms
asymptomatic

Example

More examples

"Following the period of patent parasitemia is a subpatent period."

Etymology

From sub- + patent.

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