Definitions for subject
ˈsʌb dʒɪkt; səbˈdʒɛktsub·ject

Princeton's WordNetRate this definition:1.8 / 5 votes

1. subject, topic, themenoun

   the subject matter of a conversation or discussion

   "he didn't want to discuss that subject"; "it was a very sensitive topic"; "his letters were always on the theme of love"

2. subject, content, depicted objectnoun

   something (a person or object or scene) selected by an artist or photographer for graphic representation

   "a moving picture of a train is more dramatic than a still picture of the same subject"

3. discipline, subject, subject area, subject field, field, field of study, study, bailiwicknoun

   a branch of knowledge

   "in what discipline is his doctorate?"; "teachers should be well trained in their subject"; "anthropology is the study of human beings"

4. topic, subject, issue, matternoun

   some situation or event that is thought about

   "he kept drifting off the topic"; "he had been thinking about the subject for several years"; "it is a matter for the police"

5. subjectnoun

   (grammar) one of the two main constituents of a sentence; the grammatical constituent about which something is predicated

6. subject, case, guinea pignoun

   a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation

   "the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly"; "the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities"

7. national, subjectnoun

   a person who owes allegiance to that nation

   "a monarch has a duty to his subjects"

8. subjectadjective

   (logic) the first term of a proposition

9. capable, open, subjectadjective

   possibly accepting or permitting

   "a passage capable of misinterpretation"; "open to interpretation"; "an issue open to question"; "the time is fixed by the director and players and therefore subject to much variation"

10. subject, dependentadjective

    being under the power or sovereignty of another or others

    "subject peoples"; "a dependent prince"

11. subjectverb

    likely to be affected by something

    "the bond is subject to taxation"; "he is subject to fits of depression"

12. subjectverb

    cause to experience or suffer or make liable or vulnerable to

    "He subjected me to his awful poetry"; "The sergeant subjected the new recruits to many drills"; "People in Chernobyl were subjected to radiation"

13. subjectverb

    make accountable for

    "He did not want to subject himself to the judgments of his superiors"

14. subjugate, subjectverb

    make subservient; force to submit or subdue

15. submit, subjectverb

    refer for judgment or consideration

    "The lawyers submitted the material to the court"

Samuel Johnson's DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Subjectadjective

   Etymology: subjectus, Latin.

   1. Placed or situated under.

   Th’ eastern tower,
   Whose height commands, as subject, all the vale
   To see the fight. William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida.

   2. Living under the dominion of another.

   Esau was never subject to Jacob, but founded a distinct people and government, and was himself prince over them. John Locke.

   3. Exposed; liable; obnoxious.

   Most subject is the fattest soil to weeds;
   And he the noble image of my youth
   Is overspread with them. William Shakespeare.

   All human things are subject to decay,
   And when fate summons, monarchs must obey. Dryden.

   4. Being that on which any action operates, whether intellectual or material.

   I enter into the subject matter of my discourse. Dryden.

2. Subjectnoun

   Etymology: sujet, French.

   1. One who lives under the dominion of another.

   Every subject’s duty is the king’s,
   But every subject’s soul is his own. William Shakespeare, Henry V.

   Never subject long’d to be a king,
   As I do long and wish to be a subject. William Shakespeare, Henry VI.

   The subject must obey his prince, because God commands it, human laws require it. Jonathan Swift.

   Those I call subjects which are governed by the ordinary laws and magistrates of the sovereign. Davies.

   Were subjects so but only by their choice,
   And not from birth did forc’d dominion take,
   Our prince alone would have the publick voice. Dryden.

   2. That on which any operation either mental or material is performed.

   Now spurs the lated traveller apace,
   To gain the timely inn, and near approaches
   The subject of our watch. William Shakespeare, Macbeth.

   This subject for heroick song pleas’d me. John Milton.

   Here he would have us fix our thoughts; nor are they too dry a subject for our contemplation. Decay of Piety.

   I will not venture on so nice a subject with my severer style. More.

   Make choice of a subject beautiful and noble, which being capable of all the graces that colours, and elegance of design can give, shall afford a perfect art, an ample field of matter wherein to expatiate. Dryden.

   The subject of a proposition is that concerning which any thing is affirmed or denied. Isaac Watts, Logick.

   My real design is, that of publishing your praises to the world; not upon the subject of your noble birth. Jonathan Swift.

   3. That in which any thing inheres or exists.

   Anger is certainly a kind of baseness, as it appears well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it reigns, children, women, old folks, sick folks. Francis Bacon.

   4. [In Grammar.] Lat. Gram.The nominative case to a verb, is called by Grammarians the subject of the verb. John Clarke

3. To SUBJECTverb

   Etymology: subjectus, Latin.

   1. To put under.

   The angel led them direct, and down the cliff as fast
   To the subjected plain. John Milton.

   The medal bears each form and name:
   In one short view, subjected to our eye,
   Gods, emp’rors, heroes, sages, beauties lie. Alexander Pope.

   2. To reduce to submission; to make subordinate; to make submissive.

   Think not, young warriors, your diminish’d name
   Shall lose of lustre, by subjecting rage
   To the cool dictates of experienc’d age. Dryden.

   3. To enslave; to make obnoxious.

   I live on bread like you, feel want like you,
   Taste grief, need friends, like you. subjected thus,
   How can you say to me, I am a king? William Shakespeare, Rich. II.

   I see thee, in that fatal hour,
   Subjected to the victor’s cruel pow’r,
   Led hence a slave. Dryden.

   The blind will always be led by those that see, or fall into the ditch: and he is the most subjected, the most enslaved, who is so in his understanding. John Locke.

   4. To expose; to make liable.

   If the vessels yield, it subjects the person to all the inconveniences of an erroneous circulation. Arbuthnot.

   5. To submit; to make accountable.

   God is not bound to subject his ways of operation to the scrutiny of our thoughts, and confine himself to do nothing but what we must comprehend. John Locke.

   6. To make subservient.

   Subjected to his service angel-wings. John Milton.

Webster DictionaryRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Subjectadjective

   placed or situated under; lying below, or in a lower situation

2. Subjectadjective

   placed under the power of another; specifically (International Law), owing allegiance to a particular sovereign or state; as, Jamaica is subject to Great Britain

3. Subjectadjective

   exposed; liable; prone; disposed; as, a country subject to extreme heat; men subject to temptation

4. Subjectadjective

   obedient; submissive

5. Subjectadjective

   that which is placed under the authority, dominion, control, or influence of something else

6. Subjectadjective

   specifically: One who is under the authority of a ruler and is governed by his laws; one who owes allegiance to a sovereign or a sovereign state; as, a subject of Queen Victoria; a British subject; a subject of the United States

7. Subjectadjective

   that which is subjected, or submitted to, any physical operation or process; specifically (Anat.), a dead body used for the purpose of dissection

8. Subjectadjective

   that which is brought under thought or examination; that which is taken up for discussion, or concerning which anything is said or done

9. Subjectadjective

   the person who is treated of; the hero of a piece; the chief character

10. Subjectadjective

    that of which anything is affirmed or predicated; the theme of a proposition or discourse; that which is spoken of; as, the nominative case is the subject of the verb

11. Subjectadjective

    that in which any quality, attribute, or relation, whether spiritual or material, inheres, or to which any of these appertain; substance; substratum

12. Subjectadjective

    hence, that substance or being which is conscious of its own operations; the mind; the thinking agent or principal; the ego. Cf. Object, n., 2

13. Subjectnoun

    the principal theme, or leading thought or phrase, on which a composition or a movement is based

14. Subjectnoun

    the incident, scene, figure, group, etc., which it is the aim of the artist to represent

15. Subjectverb

    to bring under control, power, or dominion; to make subject; to subordinate; to subdue

16. Subjectverb

    to expose; to make obnoxious or liable; as, credulity subjects a person to impositions

17. Subjectverb

    to submit; to make accountable

18. Subjectverb

    to make subservient

19. Subjectverb

    to cause to undergo; as, to subject a substance to a white heat; to subject a person to a rigid test

20. Etymology: [From L. subjectus, through an old form of F. sujet. See Subject, a.]

FreebaseRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. Subject

   The subject is, according to a tradition that can be traced back to Aristotle, one of the two main constituents of a clause, the other constituent being the predicate, whereby the predicate says something about the subject. According to a tradition associated with predicate logic and dependency grammars, the subject is the most prominent overt argument of the predicate. By this position all languages with arguments have subjects, though there is no way to define this consistently for all languages. From a functional perspective, a subject is a phrase that conflates nominative case with the topic. Many languages do not do this, and so do not have subjects. All of these positions see the subject in English determining person and number agreement on the finite verb, as exemplified by the difference in verb forms between he eats and they eat. The stereotypical subject immediately precedes the finite verb in declarative sentences in English and represents an agent or a theme. The subject is often a multi-word constituent and should be distinguished from parts of speech, which, roughly, classify words within constituents.

Chambers 20th Century DictionaryRate this definition:4.5 / 2 votes

1. Subject

   sub′jekt, adj. under the power of another: liable, prone, disposed: exposed: subordinate, tributary: subservient.—n. one under the power of another: one under allegiance to a sovereign: that on which any operation is performed: that which is treated or handled: (anat.) a dead body for dissection: a person supposed to be peculiarly sensitive to hypnotic influence: that which it is the object of the artist to express, the scheme or idea of a work of art: a picture representing action and incident: that of which anything is said or of which a discourse treats, bringing many things under a common head: the mind, regarded as the thinking power, in contrast with the object, that about which it thinks: topic: matter, materials: the general plan of any work of art.—v.t. Subject′, to throw or bring under: to bring under the power of: to make subordinate or subservient: to subdue: to enslave: to expose or make liable to: to cause to undergo.—n. Subjec′tion, the act of subjecting or subduing: the state of being subject to another.—adj. Subject′ive, relating to the subject: derived from one's own consciousness: denoting those states of thought or feeling of which the mind is the conscious subject—opp. to Objective.—adv. Subject′ively.—n. Subject′iveness.—v.t. Subject′ivise.—ns. Subject′ivism, a philosophical doctrine which refers all knowledge to, and founds it upon, subjective states; Subject′ivist, one who holds to subjectivism.—adj. Subjectivist′ic.—adv. Subjectivist′ically.—ns. Subjectiv′ity, state of being subjective: that which is treated subjectively; Sub′ject-matter, a tautological compound for subject, theme, topic; Sub′ject-ob′ject, the immediate object of cognition, or the thought itself; Sub′jectship, the state of being subject. [Fr. sujet—L. subjectus—sub, under, jacĕre, to throw.]

Editors ContributionRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. subject

   A defined or specific type of education or knowledge.

   The subject was geography and we are delighted to know what we do.

   
   

   Submitted by MaryC on February 23, 2020  

Surnames Frequency by Census RecordsRate this definition:0.0 / 0 votes

1. SUBJECT

   According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Subject is ranked #116201 in terms of the most common surnames in America.
   
   The Subject surname appeared 150 times in the 2010 census and if you were to sample 100,000 people in the United States, approximately 0 would have the surname Subject.
   
   72.6% or 109 total occurrences were White.
   14.6% or 22 total occurrences were Black.
   4.6% or 7 total occurrences were of Hispanic origin.
   4% or 6 total occurrences were Asian.
   4% or 6 total occurrences were of two or more races.

Matched Categories

1. • Affect
   • Cognitive Content
   • Constituent
   • Dominate
   • Grammar
   • Knowledge Domain
   • Message
   • Person
   • Submit
   • Thing

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'subject' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #507

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'subject' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1114

3. Nouns Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'subject' in Nouns Frequency: #113

4. Verbs Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'subject' in Verbs Frequency: #851

How to pronounce subject?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say subject in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of subject in Chaldean Numerology is: 6

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of subject in Pythagorean Numerology is: 8

Examples of subject in a Sentence

1. Antony Blinken:

   When it comes to oil, Russian oil, I was on the phone yesterday with the President and other members of the Cabinet on exactly the subject, and we are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil while making sure that there is still an appropriate supply of oil in world markets.

2. Luis Elizondo:

   If the American people could see what I and my colleagues in the Pentagon have seen, they'd know that this subject is very, very real, and it's worthy of thorough study.

3. Imran Ansari:

   Harvey Weinstein categorically denies the allegations made anonymously against Harvey Weinstein years, if not decades, later. Harvey Weinstein absolutely denies the allegations that Harvey Weinstein had inappropriate sexual contact with someone underage, and will vigorously defend Harvey Weinstein against these bold allegations, in any event, some of these claims, including those alleged to have occurred in the 1980s and 1990s, may be barred by the applicable statute of limitations, and not subject to any exceptions under the law, as these plaintiffs do not appear to be complainants in Mr. Weinstein's criminal case.

4. David Kaye:

   My concern is that the subject order implicates the security, and thus the freedom of expression, of unknown but likely vast numbers of people.

5. Jefferson Davis:

   The people of the States now confederated.....believed that to remain longer in the Union would subject them to continuance of a disparaging discrimination, submission to which would be inconsistent with their welfare, and intolerable to a proud people. They therefore determined to sever its bounds and established a new Confederacy for themselves.

Popularity rank by frequency of use