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

Uncertain Spacetime Einstein’s general theory of relativity, with its mind-bending revelations about the subjectivity of space and time, has long had issues meshing with quantum mechanics. —Joseph Howlett, Scientific American, 27 Jan. 2026

Much of the challenge lay in the subjectivity of securing a Certificate of Appropriateness, with reviewers weighing everything from exterior paint — which was white — and other details visible from the street. —Gina Mayfield, Dallas Morning News, 15 Jan. 2026

The liberation of time is central to modern cinema, because, once a movie is acknowledged as a work of first-person art as much as a book is, subjectivity itself becomes its overarching subject. —Richard Brody, New Yorker, 13 Jan. 2026

By the 1820s, objectivity and subjectivity were showing up in European dictionaries beside definitions that would seem familiar to us. —Vauhini Vara, The Atlantic, 8 Dec. 2025

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)