verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Verb

1. 1
   To arrive or happen so as to help or support. intransitive

   "A future state must needs subvene to prevent the whole edifice from falling into ruin."

2. 2
   To subsidize or defray. rare, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

backfinancesubsidizeunderwrite

Example

More examples

"A future state must needs subvene to prevent the whole edifice from falling into ruin."

Etymology

From Latin subveniō (“come to the aid of”), from sub (“under, up towards”) + veniō (“come”).

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