Word.ws English Dictionary

submachine

submachine noun: a machine forming part of a larger machine.

Noun

submachine (plural submachines)

  1. A machine forming part of a larger machine.
    1. A part of a real or virtual machine which acts as a machine in its own right.
      • In the same computation, the computer may be decomposed repeatedly and the partitioning may vary from one split to the other. The submachines can further recursively decompose […]1999, Martin Beran, “Decomposable Bulk Synchronous Parallel Computers”, in SOFSEM '99: Theory and Practice of Informatics, →ISBN, page 351

Adjective

submachine (not comparable)

  1. Of or pertaining to a submachine gun.
    • The body of one of the dead crewmen bounced and rolled a little as the submachine rounds ripped into it.2003, Milt Bearden, James Risen, The Main Enemy, →ISBN, page 244

Forms of submachine

pluralsubmachines

Origin of submachine

From sub- + machine.

Shortened from submachine gun.

Phrases with submachine

Questions about submachine

What does submachine mean?
Submachine means a machine forming part of a larger machine.
What part of speech is submachine?
Submachine can be a noun or an adjective.
What is the plural of submachine?
The plural of submachine is submachines.

Words near submachine in the dictionary

  1. subluxed
  2. subluxes
  3. subluxing
  4. sublyrate
  5. sublytic
  6. submachine
  7. submachine gun
  8. submachine guns
  9. submachinegun
  10. submachineguns
  11. submachines

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: submachine (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)-Flame, not lame-submachine.wav.

Cite this entry: “submachine.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/submachine. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.