Subservience

noun

noun ·4 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The state of being subservient. uncountable, usually

    "But bureaucracy, the lack of an obvious champion and the reluctance of the DfT to commit to anything because of its subservience to the Treasury all make life difficult for the group."

  2. 2
    abject or cringing submissiveness wordnet
  3. 3
    in a subservient state wordnet
  4. 4
    the condition of being something that is useful in reaching an end or carrying out a plan wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
abjectnessagreeabilityagreeablenessback seatbasenessbiddability

Example

More examples

"But bureaucracy, the lack of an obvious champion and the reluctance of the DfT to commit to anything because of its subservience to the Treasury all make life difficult for the group."

Etymology

From subservi(ent) + -ence.

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