Subservient

adj

adj ·4 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Useful in an inferior capacity.
  2. 2
    Obsequiously submissive.

    "Sansa takes her place as ruler of the North, a free and independent land no longer subservient to anywhere else. And Arya does what she’s always done best: Make her own way, literally leaving everything she knows behind to see what’s over the next horizon."

Adjective
  1. 1
    abjectly submissive; characteristic of a slave or servant wordnet
  2. 2
    serving or acting as a means or aid wordnet
  3. 3
    compliant and obedient to authority wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
servilesubordinateabjectacceptingaccessoryacquiescent

Example

More examples

"Don't be subservient to your boss."

Etymology

From Latin subserviens, present active of subservio (“I serve under”).

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