Word.ws English Dictionary

subordinator

subordinator noun: any of a lexical class of words that join clauses at a subordinate syntactic level (subordinate clauses).

Noun

subordinator (plural subordinators)

  1. Any of a lexical class of words that join clauses at a subordinate syntactic level (subordinate clauses).
    • Near-synonym: subordinating conjunction
    • Subordinators / English has a tiny set of essentially meaningless words that mark the beginnings of certain subordinate clauses (that is, clauses contained inside larger clauses). I’ll call these words subordinators (some linguists call them “complementizers,” and traditional grammars call them...2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, pages 85-86
  2. One who subordinates, or reduces the status of, another person.
    • […] the possibility of women's collusion with their subordinators, e.g. of their acceptance of subordinate status […]1986, South African Journal of Philosophy, volumes 5-7, page 112

Examples of subordinator in a sentence

  • Subordinators / English has a tiny set of essentially meaningless words that mark the beginnings of certain subordinate clauses (that is, clauses contained inside larger clauses).2024, Geoffrey K. Pullum, The Truth About English Grammar, Polity Press, →ISBN, pages 85-86:
  • The embedded clause is initiated with the word that, which is referred to as a subordinator or complementizer.2025, Edward A. F. Gibson, “Dependency Grammar” (chapter 3), in Syntax: A Cognitive Approach, MIT Press, →DOI, →ISBN, page 81:

Synonyms of subordinator

Forms of subordinator

pluralsubordinators

Origin of subordinator

From subordinate + -or.

Questions about subordinator

What does subordinator mean?
Subordinator means any of a lexical class of words that join clauses at a subordinate syntactic level (subordinate clauses).
How do you use subordinator in a sentence?
Subordinators / English has a tiny set of essentially meaningless words that mark the beginnings of certain subordinate clauses (that is, clauses contained inside larger clauses).
What part of speech is subordinator?
Subordinator is a noun.
What is the plural of subordinator?
The plural of subordinator is subordinators.

Words near subordinator in the dictionary

  1. subordinationism
  2. subordinationist
  3. subordinationists
  4. subordinations
  5. subordinative
  6. subordinator
  7. subordinators
  8. subordines
  9. subordo
  10. subordos
  11. suborganellar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subordinator (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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