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subservience

nounC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,583 of 15,258leans written

Subservience is excessive readiness to obey somebody else. Total subservience, subservience to power, expect subservience.

The excess is the criticism, since obedience is neutral and subservience is not. It is used of institutions as much as of people, and a court accused of subservience to a government is a serious charge.

Definitions of subservience

  1. 1nounsubservienceExcessive readiness to obey somebody else.C2

    “The servants were expected to show complete subservience to the lord of the house.”

subservience is a submission.

Where it comes from

From subservient, from Latin subservire, to serve under.

From subservient + ence.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

subservience in the wild

  • As an intellectual poet, Chudleigh felt that women were fit for nothing but subservience only because men held low expectations for them.

    The Ladies' Defence

  • The name is sometimes styled Abdul-Hasib; the prefix Abdul meaning servant, denoting subservience to God.

    Hasib (name)

  • Knight Rider stories usually depict either average citizens, or ethical heads of corporations, being bullied into subservience to an overbearing or ruthless criminal organization.

    Knight Rider

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.