subjectivity

noun

sub·​jec·​tiv·​i·​ty (ˌ)səb-ˌjek-ˈti-və-tē 

: the quality, state, or nature of being subjective

Any attempt to link landscapes and music together can suffer from some measure of subjectivity.

—David J. Keeling

He thinks that scientists and philosophers have unjustly neglected the subjectivity of conscious experience and that this has made it harder for them to explain some of the workings of the mind.

—Anthony Gottlieb

Examples of subjectivity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

If the act of reading a story is the coming together of reader and writer, the creation of a delicate channel between subjectivities, what happens to that provisional bond when our proxy is knocked off? —Literary Hub, 10 June 2026

In this section, artists Wendy Red Star, Omar Victor Diop, Yuki Kihara, Frida Orupabo, and Dimakatso Mathopa mine the tropes and cliches borne of these images, and through satire and recontextualization, offer works that center their own empowerment and subjectivity. —The Editors Of Artnews, ARTnews.com, 10 June 2026

That biography took the form of a dark romance between the self-lacerating Louis and his fiercely loving but brutal maker, Lestat, filtered through the former’s brooding subjectivity. —Judy Berman, Time, 2 June 2026

In trying to remove bias and subjectivity, firms often remove differentiation and judgment. —Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic, Forbes.com, 27 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1803, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for subjectivity

• absorptivity
• affectivity
• collectivity
• conductivity
• connectivity
• corrosivity
• creativity
• diffusivity
• directivity
• effectivity
• emissivity
• exclusivity

Medical Definition

subjectivity

noun

sub·​jec·​tiv·​i·​ty ˌsəb-jek-ˈtiv-ət-ē 

plural subjectivities

1

: subjective character, quality, state, or nature

2

: the personal qualities of an investigator that affect the outcome of scientific or medical research (as by unconsciously communicating a bias to the subject of the experiment)