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

ProPublica spoke with more than a dozen cleft specialists nationwide, and all acknowledged the variability, subjectivity and debate in cleft care. —Megan Rose, ProPublica, 6 Mar. 2024

In her own subjectivity, however, she was done for—and this was strangely simplifying. —Tessa Hadley, The New Yorker, 17 July 2023

Into this wound, imagination may pour—not to invade the other’s subjectivity, but to awaken awe at the depth, privacy, and singularity of each life. —Longreads, 19 Jan. 2024

There’s more creativity to the way the series delves into the peculiarities of memory and subjectivity, as Imogene and Rufus are constantly going into and out of the other’s versions of past and present events. —Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter, 15 Jan. 2024

When there seemed no such thing as too many voices, or an excess of subjectivity—when, on and off the page, the persistence of silence and constraint were far more plausibly imagined than a world awash in personal truths. —Michelle Orange, The New Yorker, 1 Mar. 2024

Well, a great deal of marketing and subjectivity for one, but Les Remarquables de Martell is truly a rare release. —Jonah Flicker, Robb Report, 27 Feb. 2024

This subjectivity can introduce bias into the results. —Amber Smith, Discover Magazine, 5 Aug. 2023

The movement, which grew out of workshops that Glück ran in the back of a bookstore in the Castro District, encouraged writers to avoid stereotype by moving between styles and unapologetically embracing subjectivity. —Daniel Felsenthal, The New Yorker, 19 Jan. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1803, in the meaning defined above

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)