How to Use subordinate in a Sentence

subordinate

1 of 3 adjective

• For Gilman, the life of an artist was always subordinate to the work.
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 14 Mar. 2023
• Above all, Napoleon believed that the church should be subordinate to the state.
  — Zenger News, Forbes, 26 Jan. 2023
• What is a sticky wicket is when partner is subordinate to the other.
  — Jenna Reyes, BostonGlobe.com, 28 Jan. 2023
• Grout, his subordinate, was in charge of recording the value of the investments each day.
  — Larry Neumeister, The Seattle Times, 21 July 2017
• That notice will reflect if junior bonds have been sold (sometimes called subordinate debt).
  — David Migoya, The Denver Post, 16 Dec. 2019
• Fox cannot sound defensive or defiant or inclined to pass the buck to a subordinate or even a player.
  — Chris Jones, chicagotribune.com, 22 Sep. 2017
• That was deemed to be disposable — subordinate, at all points, to politics.
  — Charles C. W. Cooke, National Review, 3 June 2021
• Tanks, anti-tank weapons and armored vehicles now play a subordinate role to the ever-present drones.
  — Tim Lister, CNN Money, 23 Nov. 2025
• Please don’t put yourself in a subordinate position to please people.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 7 May 2021
• And if a subordinate does so of his own volition, that subordinate ought to be punished.
  — Luke Thompson, National Review, 29 Sep. 2019
• All data and facts, all judgment about stories and the people who produce them, are subordinate to the mission.
  — Gerard Baker, WSJ, 14 June 2021
• Oh, there'll still be room for men to serve, but only in the subordinate roles appropriate for their lesser agency.
  — Ron Charles, Philly.com, 22 Oct. 2017
• After your boss makes an awkward joke or puts his arm around a female subordinate, look at the woman or women on the receiving end.
  — Kaitlin Menza, Esquire, 13 Oct. 2017
• That vote probably would be cast by a Dykes subordinate serving as her ex-officio designee on the board.
  — Jon Lender, courant.com, 8 Aug. 2020
• In the ruling, the court says that Congress gets to determine who is a citizen and courts play a subordinate role in that process.
  — The Salt Lake Tribune, 17 June 2021
• And below the national level, there would be subordinate units with their own powers of self-government.
  — Win McCormack, The New Republic, 10 Feb. 2023
• Her peer and subordinate evaluations were mixed.
  — Davis Winkie, USA Today, 6 Sep. 2025
• The male subordinate doesn’t make the mistake again; the female subordinate does and her career suffers as a result.
  — NBC News, 2 Aug. 2019
• North Polish Santa's elves are just a bunch of subordinate Clauses.
  — Woman's Day, 13 Sep. 2022
• But the near miss this time should not mean that officials subordinate to a President should be left exposed to such pressure in the future.
  — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 8 Oct. 2021
• Her costume and hair shows how Linda is restricted by her times, presumed as being subordinate to her husband.
  — Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 10 Mar. 2026
• Does the unique American idea of federalism still work, with state rights and laws subordinate to federal law?
  — Victor Davis Hanson, The Mercury News, 15 June 2017
• All the analysis and strategy, as the series draws closer to a conclusion, can be subordinate to the sheer desire of one team to move on to the next round.
  — BostonGlobe.com, 7 June 2021
• Pichai quietly withdrew from the board in 2018 and installed a Google subordinate in his place.
  — Fortune, 26 Sep. 2020
• The agreement to commit to Team Number One will be tested by a promise made to someone on a subordinate team.
  — Scott Brown, Forbes, 19 Apr. 2023
• In 2009, Zwicharoski was told by a subordinate that some human remains were missing.
  — Cameron Knight and Xerxes Wilson, USA TODAY, 26 May 2017
• Another amendment adopted to the bill sought to address multiuser accounts, chiefly by having parental and subordinate accounts.
  — Nick Coltrain, Denver Post, 26 Apr. 2026
• In a quest for normalcy over the past few months of closures, the desire among gym-goers to get back at it has seemed subordinate only to people’s urge to return to bars and restaurants.
  — Amanda Mull, The Atlantic, 8 Sep. 2020
• The economic order must remain subordinate to human dignity and the common good.
  — Scott Simon, NPR, 30 May 2026
• Neom is expected to have its own laws separate from the broader kingdom but subordinate to the monarch, King Salman, the crown prince’s father.
  — Rory Jones, WSJ, 17 Sep. 2022

subordinate

2 of 3 noun

• She leaves the day-to-day running of the firm to her subordinates.
• When the day and time are fixed, subordinates are so informed.
  — Kat Moon, Time, 4 June 2019
• Air Force sergeant posted video of her rant about black subordinates.
  — Greg Larose, NOLA.com, 31 Jan. 2018
• Because your subordinates in the end will not support you and carry you over the line.
  — CBS News, 4 Dec. 2019
• Then Schembri called a subordinate and told him to talk to Theuma about a job.
  — Ben Taub, The New Yorker, 14 Dec. 2020
• The subordinate was demoted to a filing deputy, the suit said.
  — Fox News, 9 Mar. 2022
• From his children to his subordinates, to a poor waiter who would die a couple of hours later, no one is safe.
  — Jack Francis, Rolling Stone, 11 Apr. 2023
• His public dynamic with Schoen is that of a boss and his subordinate.
  — Pat Leonard, New York Daily News, 27 Apr. 2026
• So the scientists altered the calls of an alpha male the subordinates knew.
  — Virginia Morell, Science | AAAS, 20 July 2017
• Nicole Mehringer lost her job after she was caught drunk in an unmarked police car with a male subordinate.
  — Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2026
• Johnson went out drinking with a subordinate, then was found asleep at the wheel near his Bridgeport home.
  — Megan Crepeau, chicagotribune.com, 23 Oct. 2020
• But the town’s police chief, who likens them to flowers, says his female subordinates have soothed motorists.
  — The Economist, 12 July 2018
• Former fire chief Kelvin Cochran self-published the book and gave it to subordinates.
  — Kate Brumback, The Seattle Times, 16 Oct. 2018
• Viola labels himself a hands-off owner, one that can step back and let his subordinates do their jobs.
  — Matthew Defranks, Sun-Sentinel.com, 18 June 2018
• In this picture of a one-man reign of pure corruption, hapless subordinates labor in vain to hold on to the just and the true.
  — Dorothy Rabinowitz, WSJ, 27 June 2019
• The suit alleges that Easterbrook, who was fired for sexting with a subordinate, did far more than that.
  — Beth Kowitt, Fortune, 12 Aug. 2020
• So Brown dialed a subordinate’s number at one o’clock in the morning.
  — Bysheryl Estrada, Fortune, 19 Sep. 2023
• Ten times a day, over 4 days, the researchers put a dominant mouse nose-to-nose with a subordinate in a clear, narrow tube.
  — Byemily Underwood, science.org, 27 Jan. 2023
• Many top leaders prize subordinates with the courage to disagree and argue their position.
  — Geoff Colvin, Fortune, 13 Mar. 2018
• Moreover, since the rainmakers pocket the largest cut of the fee, their subordinates have less incentive to do a fine job.
  — The Economist, 6 Feb. 2020
• That's ominous for other subordinates who have been at odds with the President.
  — Stephen Collinson, CNN, 13 Mar. 2018
• Franky’s proving stubborn, so his subordinates steal his ever-present swimsuit in a bid to lure him over to Luffy to seal the deal.
  — Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 1 Sep. 2023
• Top Navy commanders pressured subordinates to sail even when the crews and ships were not fully prepared to go to sea.
  — Joaquin Sapien, ProPublica, 7 Sep. 2023
• And the dominant chimp didn’t make any more aggressive advances than the subordinate.
  — Ed Yong, Discover Magazine, 21 May 2010
• In addition to misuse of his aide, Uribe was found to have accepted gifts and loans from subordinates.
  — Andrew Dyer, sandiegouniontribune.com, 10 July 2018
• Does the subordinate have a problem with holding the retreat in their common meeting spaces?
  — Roxane Gay, New York Times, 14 Oct. 2022
• When in the military, the subordinate in question has access to weaponry.
  — New York Times, 10 Feb. 2020
• Put simply, the theory says the president should be able to issue orders to subordinates and to fire them at will.
  — Graham G. Dodds, The Conversation, 7 Oct. 2025
• Put simply, the theory says the president should be able to issue orders to subordinates and to fire them at will.
  — Graham G. Dodds, The Conversation, 30 June 2026
• Chief executives fire even close subordinates all the time, one reason the job at the top is often described as lonely.
  — Benjamin Mullin, New York Times, 15 Nov. 2023

subordinate

3 of 3 verb

• The reason is that each would require leading states to subordinate their own sovereignty.
  — Henry A. Kissinger, Foreign Affairs, 13 Oct. 2023
• And no one can hope to rise in the ranks without subordinating his interests to those of others.
  — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 27 Dec. 2023
• In a sense, though, these touches are subordinated to a broader vision.
  — Justin Davidson, Smithsonian, 29 June 2017
• Craftsmanship was stripped away, and the pace of labor was subordinated to the line itself.
  — Christopher Marquis, Time, 30 May 2026
• The news about her pregnancy had prompted him to subordinate his artistic ego to the expense of raising a child.
  — Nell Zink, Harper's magazine, 24 June 2019
• Feminists can be depicted as jealous man haters who want to subordinate men.
  — Joy Burnford, Forbes, 26 May 2021
• Giving and receiving feedback is a two-way street and should never just be from manager to subordinate.
  — Austin Speck, Forbes, 14 Apr. 2022
• Your notion that our ability to have this conversation is subordinated to the color of our skin doesn’t make any sense to me.
  — Ezra Klein, Vox, 9 Apr. 2018
• The desire to punish belligerence—and to subordinate other geopolitical goals to that cause—is once again in the air.
  — Jordan Michael Smith, The New Republic, 20 Apr. 2022
• The brilliance of her artwork is many times subordinated to her biography.
  — Chadd Scott, Forbes.com, 29 Jan. 2026
• Although the situation is sticky, Frank decides to help his subordinate out.
  — Jennifer Aldrich, Country Living, 1 Feb. 2019
• In many places, children expect to support their elderly parents and will subordinate their interests to that aim.
  — New York Times, 22 Feb. 2022
• Early gas-station signs were smaller than today’s, and still subordinated to the oil-company name and image.
  — Ian Bogost, The Atlantic, 11 Apr. 2026
• Crusoe keeps Friday as a servant, implying that the best way to civilize a savage is to subordinate him.
  — Pallavi Kottamasu, BostonGlobe.com, 2 June 2018
• This is not to defend Cook, but rather to illustrate the parallelism and hypocrisy of the rule of law being subordinated to the law of the ruler.
  — Jason Ma, Fortune, 26 Aug. 2025
• Plenty of talented managers are reluctant to join firms where their career prospects would be subordinated to feckless scions.
  — The Economist, 14 Nov. 2019
• Other challenges included the sloping site and the need for the addition to be both harmonious with and subordinate to the farmhouse.
  — Marni Elyse Katz, BostonGlobe.com, 15 June 2018
• Treating replies as equal as opposed to subordinate somehow just allows for a very different and much more broad range of public conversations.
  — Alex Heath, The Verge, 5 July 2023
• They have been deployed as justification for subordinating those with lesser scores.
  — Randall Kennedy, Washington Post, 23 Aug. 2019
• That means Alaska's interests will be subordinated to a second, third or fourth position.
  — Bernie Karl, Anchorage Daily News, 2 Feb. 2018
• In searching for the next artistic director, the board needs to subordinate MBA logic.
  — Los Angeles Times, 10 June 2021
• In many places, however, children expect to support their elderly parents and will subordinate their interests to that aim.
  — New York Times, 22 Feb. 2022
• The building’s critics argue that everything has been subordinated to its visual image.
  — OregonLive.com, 19 Jan. 2018
• To say anything else, many feminists now argue, would be to infantilize her, to subordinate her—to the state, to moralism—rather than acknowledge her mastery of her own body.
  — S. C. Cornell, New Yorker, 5 Jan. 2026
• Conflating these terms, which was done numerous times through the pandemic, will only further subordinate public health to health care and not address root problems in the system.
  — Torie Bosch, STAT, 2 Dec. 2023
• The pontiff has proved unwilling to subordinate his faith to politics, or to adjust his commitment to the Gospel in exchange for access to power.
  — Peter Wehner, The Atlantic, 27 Apr. 2026
• In the years following Suharto’s downfall, politicians vowed to subordinate the armed forces to civilian authority.
  — The Economist, 31 Oct. 2019
• Schwimmer leads the high-profile cast as a supportive boss who gives his female subordinate a promotion only to ruin a nice professional moment by trying to kiss her.
  — Jayme Deerwester, USA TODAY, 29 Jan. 2018
• In the end, the 1990s didn’t advance women and girls; rather, the decade was marked by a shocking, accelerating effort to subordinate them.
  — Allison Yarrow, Time, 13 June 2018
• One of its conceptual flaws was a failure to imagine political parties, which can effectively subordinate one branch to the other.
  — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 12 July 2018