verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To place (any one cognition) under another as belonging to it; to include or contain something else. transitive

   "Near-synonym: comprise"

2. 2
   consider (an instance of something) as part of a general rule or principle wordnet
3. 3
   To consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule. transitive
4. 4
   contain or include wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

colligateaffectamountassumebringcall for

Example

More examples

"The new department will subsume both Tom and Mary's departments."

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin subsūmere, from sub- + sūmō (“I take”). Compare English consume.

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