submissive

adjective

sub·​mis·​sive səb-ˈmi-siv 

: submitting to others

submissive employees

submissively adverb

submissiveness noun

Synonyms of submissive

• obedient

Examples of submissive in a Sentence

it's not in her nature to be submissive

Recent Examples on the Web

Earlier this year, my colleague and bud Kelefa Sanneh suggested that music critics, as a lot, have gone soft—becoming submissive, overly agreeable, and, in some cases, nearly servile. —Amanda Petrusich, New Yorker, 1 Dec. 2025

Deborah Gilmour Smyth leads the Backyard cast as Gladys with an incredible, tour de force performance that begins with joy, laughter and vivaciousness and gradually, over the course of two hours, moves toward frightened, childlike and submissive. —Pam Kragen, San Diego Union-Tribune, 25 Nov. 2025

Even literary heroes had been growing more submissive, Whyte claimed. —David Merritt Johns, The Atlantic, 2 Nov. 2025

Less than a year after Poor Things — and a mere three months since that movie won multiple Oscars — Lanthimos reunited with Emma Stone, Willem Dafoe, and Margaret Qualley for a demented triptych organized around dominant-submissive relationships. —A.a. Dowd, Vulture, 24 Oct. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1572, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for submissive

• derisive
• dismissive
• emissive
• permissive
• transmissive
• missive

Kids Definition

submissive

adjective

sub·​mis·​sive səb-ˈmis-iv 

: inclined or willing to submit to others : yielding

submissively adverb

submissiveness noun

Etymology

from Latin submissus, past participle of submittere "to let down," from sub- "under, below" and mittere "to send, throw" — related to message

Medical Definition

submissive

adjective

sub·​mis·​sive səb-ˈmis-iv 

: characterized by tendencies to yield to the will or authority of others

bullying usually involves a stronger, more dominant personality coercing a weaker, more submissive personality

—S. W. Twemlow et al.

submissiveness noun