subaltern
/ˈsʌb.əltən/US/sʌbˈɔltəɹn/
subaltern adjective: of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
Adjective
subaltern (comparative more subaltern, superlative most subaltern)
- Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
- a subaltern officer
- Two weeks after giving birth[…] she [Rachida Dati] was removed and offered no consolation prize other than the subaltern position of No 2 on the UMP's list for the next European elections.2009 January 27, Agnes Poirier, “The fall of Rachida Dati reflects badly on the French president”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- subordinate
- Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.
Noun
subaltern (plural subalterns)
- A subordinate.
- A commissioned officer having a rank below that of captain; a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
- She was an extraordinarily beautiful girl, Margaret Devereux ; and made all the men frantic by running away with a penniless young fellow ; a mere nobody sir a subaltern in a foot regiment, or something of that kind.1891, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, London; New York, N.Y.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC
- As a subaltern of 24, Neave was captured in the defence of Calais in May 1940.2003 February 20, Ciar Byrne, “Colditz: remade with love”, in The Guardian
- A subaltern proposition; a proposition implied by a universal proposition.
- Antonyms:
- superaltern
- A member of a group that is socially, politically and geographically outside of the hegemonic power structure of the colony and of the colonial homeland.
- Young refers sardonically to the existence of reams of postcolonial "theory", and promises to give us "postcolonialism from below, which is what and where it should rightly be, given that it elaborates a politics of ‘the subaltern’, that is, subordinated classes and peoples".2003 August 9, Steven Poole, “Postcolonialism and all that jazz”, in The Guardian
- In Ghosh's novel, a canonical western scientist is pitted against a counterscientific group of native folk-medicine practitioners led by Mangala, a subaltern in every conceivable meaning of the term.2012, Aparajita De, Amrita Ghosh, Ujjwal Jana, Subaltern Vision: A Study in Postcolonial Indian English Text, page 109
subaltern meaning in Tamil, Urdu and Kannada
subaltern in Tamil
- கீழ்நிலைப்பணியாளர், கீழ்நிலை ஆட்பெயர்
subaltern in Urdu
- a subaltern
- نجیب najīb
subaltern in Kannada
- ಅಚ್ಚುಳಾಯ್ತ
Synonyms of subaltern
Antonyms
Forms of subaltern
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more subaltern |
| superlative | most subaltern |
| Noun | |
| plural | subalterns |
Origin of subaltern
From Middle French subalterne, from Late Latin subalternus, from Latin sub- + alternus, from alter.
Words formed from subaltern
Questions about subaltern
- What does subaltern mean?
- Subaltern means of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
- What is subaltern in Tamil?
- Subaltern in Tamil is கீழ்நிலைப்பணியாளர், கீழ்நிலை ஆட்பெயர். See Subaltern meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is subaltern?
- Subaltern can be an adjective or a noun.
- How do you pronounce subaltern?
- Subaltern is pronounced /ˈsʌb.əltən/ (UK).
Words near subaltern in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: subaltern (page history and authors); subaltern (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); نجیب (Urdu) (page history and authors); subaltern (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-subaltern.wav.
Cite this entry: “subaltern.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subaltern. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.