as in humble
showing, expressing, or offered in a spirit of humility or unseemly submissiveness had always maintained a servile attitude around people with money

Synonyms & Similar Words

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How is the word servile distinct from other similar adjectives?

Some common synonyms of servile are obsequious, slavish, and subservient. While all these words mean "showing or characterized by extreme compliance or abject obedience," servile suggests the mean or fawning behavior of a slave.

a political boss and his entourage of servile hangers-on

When might obsequious be a better fit than servile?

While in some cases nearly identical to servile, obsequious implies fawning or sycophantic compliance and exaggerated deference of manner.

waiters who are obsequious in the presence of celebrities

When could slavish be used to replace servile?

The words slavish and servile can be used in similar contexts, but slavish suggests abject or debased servility.

the slavish status of migrant farm workers

When would subservient be a good substitute for servile?

In some situations, the words subservient and servile are roughly equivalent. However, subservient implies the cringing manner of one very conscious of a subordinate position.

domestic help was expected to be properly subservient

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of servile That this was news was hard to believe, since complaints about servile female voices had been made not for years but for decades. Jill Lepore, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2024 His co-stars, like Will Ferrell’s savage Mugatu, Owen Wilson’s stoner hottie Hansel, and Nathan Lee Graham’s servile Todd — all so precise and well-defined in the original’s ravelike milieu — are doomed to retrace their old steps here. Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024 Some Hawaiian cultural experts say aloha is a complex and fluid idea, too often misconstrued as a sweet and servile way of tolerating visitors. Jenny Jarvie, Los Angeles Times, 19 Oct. 2023 These officials could, in turn, redistribute some of their private goods among their own servile lieutenants, but the monarch retained ultimate power to grant or revoke their privileged status. Serhiy Kudelia, Foreign Affairs, 27 Feb. 2014 See All Example Sentences for servile
Recent Examples of Synonyms for servile
Adjective
  • Wilco’s prolific frontman has described his new triple LP as his humble effort to push back against the overwhelming darkness of life in the 2020s.
    Simon Vozick-Levinson, Rolling Stone, 22 Sep. 2025
  • Berkus uses a special ceramic jar to boost the storage of something as humble as Q-tips, for example.
    Miranda Crowell, Better Homes & Gardens, 22 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • Doherty, 30, is playing meek flower shop assistant Seymour in the treasured musical, about a strange and unusual plant that feeds only on human flesh and blood.
    Dave Quinn, PEOPLE, 18 Sep. 2025
  • What threatened to be a meek, straight-sets exit for the 13th seed went full-metal crazy on match point down when Bonzi was interrupted from serving it out after a photographer absent-mindedly walked onto the court.
    Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 26 Aug. 2025
Adjective
  • We’ve all been cast adrift in the cognitive dissonance between the visceral seriousness of the crime and the abject flippancy of the shooter, the brutality of the shooting and the memes reacting to Kirk’s bigoted views.
    Raven Smith, Vogue, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Our narrator, a gay, happily married father of two disentangling himself from a poly love affair, is—depending on the light—brilliant, self-mythologizing, abject, hopeful, and vulnerable.
    Literary Hub, Literary Hub, 8 Sep. 2025
Adjective
  • There were dozens of other US fugitives of justice living in Cuba, many of them would-be revolutionaries that had arrived on the island thinking Castro’s government would provide them the military training to become the next Che Guevara but instead they were given menial jobs and forgotten.
    Patrick Oppmann, CNN Money, 26 Sep. 2025
  • Businesses don’t necessarily hire people solely based on their ability to schedule meetings, fill out paperwork or submit expense reports, even though these menial tasks can take up a significant portion of an employee’s typical workday.
    Rohan Joshi, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Servile.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/servile. Accessed 29 Sep. 2025.

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