subsystem

noun

sub·​sys·​tem ˈsəb-ˌsi-stəm How to pronounce subsystem (audio)
variants or less commonly sub-system
plural subsystems also sub-systems
: a system that is part of a larger system
These subsystems of the climate system include the atmosphere, the oceans (both upper and deep oceans), the sea ice, the ice sheets, the land surface, and the biota.Stephen H. Schneider
Voyager 2 was the troublesome twin. Even before launch, failures in its onboard computer subsystems had to be rectified. The problems continued after liftoff as the attitude-control subsystem behaved in an unexpected fashion.William I. McLaughlin

Examples of subsystem in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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Ostranuats puts you at the helm of a ship crewed by a scrappy collection of the galaxy's cast-offs, salvaging parts and subsystems to fend off bankruptcy and keep your rustbucket afloat in the darkest corners of the universe. Alan Bradley, Space.com, 7 Oct. 2025 According to the reseachers, this unified multirate architecture improves responsiveness and stability by preventing faster subsystems from being held back by slower ones and embedding the jets’ dynamics directly into the prediction horizon. Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 1 Oct. 2025 The designs are tailored for AI algorithms and offer an improved memory subsystem, featuring configurable caches and new memory latency tolerance mechanisms that help mask latency and maximize throughput under demanding workloads. Marco Chiappetta, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025 The water recovery and treatment system on the ISS consists of several subsystems. Berrin Tansel, The Conversation, 30 July 2025 See All Example Sentences for subsystem

Word History

First Known Use

1756, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of subsystem was in 1756

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Cite this Entry

“Subsystem.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subsystem. Accessed 8 Oct. 2025.

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