Meaning of subject in English
Table of contents
Pronunciation
/ˈsəbdʒɛkt/US accent
UK accent
to browse different examples of pronunciation.Verb
subjectDefinitions
1. cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable toExamples
- « He subjected me to his awful poetry »
- « The sergeant subjected the new recruits to many drills »
- « People in Chernobyl were subjected to radiation »
- 2. make accountable for
Examples
- « He did not want to subject himself to the judgments of his superiors »
- 3. make subservient
Examples
- « force to submit or subdue »
Derived terms
- 4. refer for judgment or consideration
Examples
- « She submitted a proposal to the agency »
Derived terms
Classifying Adjective
subjectDefinitions
1. possibly accepting or permittingExamples
- « a passage capable of misinterpretation »
- « open to interpretation »
- « an issue open to question »
- « the time is fixed by the director and players and therefore subject to much variation »
Synonyms
- 2. being under the power or sovereignty of another or others
Examples
- « subject peoples »
- « a dependent prince »
Synonyms
Noun
subjectEtymology
Middle English (in the sense ‘(person) owing obedience’): from Old French suget, from Latin subjectus‘brought under’, past participle of subicere, from sub-‘under’ + jacere‘throw’. Senses relating to philosophy, logic, and grammar are derived ultimately from Aristotle's use of to hupokeimenon meaning ‘material from which things are made’ and ‘subject of attributes and predicates’Definitions
1. the subject matter of a conversation or discussionExamples
- « he didn't want to discuss that subject »
- « it was a very sensitive topic »
- « his letters were always on the theme of love »
- 2. some situation or event that is thought about
Examples
- « he kept drifting off the topic »
- « he had been thinking about the subject for several years »
- « it is a matter for the police »
Derived terms
- 3. a branch of knowledge
Examples
- « in what discipline is his doctorate? »
- « teachers should be well trained in their subject »
- « anthropology is the study of human beings »
Derived terms
- 4. something (a person or object or scene) selected by an artist or photographer for graphic representation
Examples
- « a moving picture of a train is more dramatic than a still picture of the same subject »
- 5. a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures
Examples
- « someone who is an object of investigation »
- « the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly »
- « the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities »
- 6. a person who owes allegiance to that nation
Examples
- « a monarch has a duty to his subjects »
Derived terms
- 7. (grammar) one of the two main constituents of a sentence
Examples
- « the grammatical constituent about which something is predicated »
- 8. (logic) the first term of a proposition
Famous quotes
- « I know for me the subject of how to be in a relationship is precious and complicated and challenging. » Helen Hunt
- « That fear first created the gods is perhaps as true as anything so brief could be on so great a subject. » George Santayana
- « Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice. » Will Durant
- « I love to compare different time frames. Poetry can evoke the time of the subject. By a very careful choice of words you can evoke an era, completely throw the poem into a different time scale. » Robert Morgan
- « My favorite subject probably was math. I love math. Figures just intrigue me. I was really good at math. English probably was my worst subject. But I used to write a lot of poetry. I used to write poetry all the time. » Herschel Walker