Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use subvert in a sentence

18 example sentences · verb, noun

Subvert means to overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly. Example: “The oppressive regime stays in power only as long as they manage to subvert the will of the people.”

Examples of subvert by meaning

verbTo pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to corrupt; to confound.

  • The oppressive regime stays in power only as long as they manage to subvert the will of the people.

More sentences with subvert

  • The Sultan of Brunei effectively subverted a constitutional monarchy into an absolute monarchy by implementing a perpetual state of emergency.From the entry absolute monarchy
  • Any attempt by an entrant to influence the result or subvert the contest will lead to immediate disqualification.From the entry entrant
  • The fancy word for this kind of amorality is “instrumentalism,” and it subverts the rule of law.2023 November 29 – December 5, Rob Natelson, “Why I Still Doubt the 2020 Election”, in The Epoch Times, U.S. edition, number 488, A, page 17. From the entry leftist
  • Rather, the women are rewarded for taking charge and subverting social norms.2015, Gary Day, Jack Lynch, The Encyclopedia of British Literature, 3 Volume Set: 1660-1789, page 574. From the entry parapornographic
  • On the other hand, I can already hear critics bellowing that giving men free booze promotes patriarchy rather than subverts it.2023 April 25, Doug Mortimer, “Snockered with Knockers”, in A Voice for Men. From the entry wokel
  • The real bombshell it contains is not the confidence of the spy agencies that Russia hoped to subvert American democracy.2021 March 17, Stephen Collinson, “New US intel report shows Russia, Trump and GOP acolytes have same goals”, in CNN, archived from the…. From the entry adversary
  • Such tongue-in-cheek scenes as this irreverently subvert Hidalgo's somber image.2008, Elisabeth Guerrero, Confronting History and Modernity in Mexican Narrative, page 37. From the entry prostibule
  • It is a self conscious attempt to subvert the traditional language of poetry and insist on a merciless difference.1991, Maggie Humm, Border Traffic: Strategies of Contemporary Women Writers, page 59. From the entry Black British
  • This creative project will adapt and subvert the themes of friendship, family, and coming-of-age to address the gendered narratives within the AGTube community.2025 May, Mary Carol Dassau, “American Girl(hood): Gender Performance, Tween Media, and Social Media ContentSocial Media Content”, in…. From the entry AGTube
  • As a recent example of the ‘dark academia’ trend in literature, the novel effectively examines and subverts the romanticised view of so-called ‘prestigious’ universities.2023, Rebecca van Besouw, "Literature Spotlight: Babel by RF Kuang", PDBY (University of Pretoria), 8 May 2023, page 11. From the entry dark academia
  • Nature's waters are subverted to turn against its guests, complementing a xenofeminist commitment to an anti-naturalism that also entails dismantling nuclear domestic spaces.2020, Jennifer Cooke, “Feminist Manuals and Manifestos in the Twenty-first Century”, in Jennifer Cooke, editor, The New Feminist Literary…. From the entry antinaturalism
  • I will delve into the ways Vauseman both upholds and subverts the expectations of a couple involved in a traditional marriage plot.2019, Alexis Constantine, "'I wanna be your prison wife': Nice Blonde Ladies, Broken Rules, and Subversive Marriage Plots in Jenji Kohan’s…. From the entry Vauseman
  • His antagonism toward the museum as an institution did not take the form of trying to change the museum or subvert it from within.2001, Julie H. Reiss, From Margin to Center: The Spaces of Installation Art, page 29. From the entry antimuseum
  • The resulting video (called a “poop”) subverts its original content by slicing and dicing the video and audio, adding visual effects, and mashing several videos into one.2012 November 3, Brad Evan Rosen, “YouTube Poop: Meme as Art, Community – by “William A – YLT2012””, in Yale Law Tech. From the entry poop
  • Aristotelian philosophy and Christian theology emerged and subverted it for a number of centuries, but it made a comeback with the naturalist philosophers of the sixteenth century.2005, David Skrbina, Panpsychism in the West, MIT Press, →ISBN, pages 2–3. From the entry panpsychism
  • More and more extravagant and obscene material was being accumulated as if to subvert aesthetic notions of civility and decorum with new ideals of inclusive grotesquery and excess.1992, Richard Brown, “Beginnings”, in James Joyce: A Post-Culturalist Perspective (Macmillan Modern Novelists), Basingstoke, Hampshire…. From the entry gargantuanly
  • "Like the other fantasists dealt with in this volume, Rossetti used fantasy to subvert and undermine traditionalist notions, in this instance notions of male power and female submissiveness."1991, Kath Filmer, Kath Filmer-Davies, The Victorian Fantasists: Essays on Culture, Society and Belief in the Mythopoeic Fiction of the…. From the entry fantasist

Meaning of subvert

  1. verb To overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly.
  2. verb To pervert, as the mind, and turn it from the truth; to corrupt; to confound.
  3. verb To upturn convention from the foundation by undermining it (literally, to turn from beneath).

Full definition of subvert

Questions about subvert in a sentence

How do you use subvert in a sentence?
Subvert is used as a verb and noun. For example: “The oppressive regime stays in power only as long as they manage to subvert the will of the people.”
What is a short sentence with subvert?
“Such tongue-in-cheek scenes as this irreverently subvert Hidalgo's somber image.”
What does subvert mean?
Subvert means to overturn from the foundation; to overthrow; to ruin utterly.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subvert (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use subvert in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/subvert. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.