Word.ws English Dictionary

subprime

UK/ˈsʌb.pɹʌɪm/US/ˈsʌb.pɹaɪm/

subprime adjective: less than prime; inferior.

Adjective

subprime (not comparable)

  1. Less than prime; inferior.
    • subprime beef
    Antonyms:
    superprime
  2. (US, now worldwide) Designating a loan (typically at a greater than usual rate of interest) offered to a borrower who is not qualified for other loans (for example, because of a poor credit history).
    • Central to the story was Steve Eisman, an eccentric and rebarbative hedge-funder who was one of the earliest to see through the subprime lies.2014 April 5, Alex Preston, “Flash Boys: Cracking the Money Code by Michael Lewis, review: Michael Lewis tells the compelling true story of one man’s mission to tame Wall Street [print version...
  3. (US, dated) Designating a type of commercial lending rate, less than the prime rate, offered to desirable borrowers.

Noun

subprime (plural subprimes)

  1. A subprime loan.

Antonyms of subprime

Forms of subprime

pluralsubprimes

Origin of subprime

From sub- + prime.

Questions about subprime

What does subprime mean?
Subprime means less than prime; inferior.
What part of speech is subprime?
Subprime can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce subprime?
Subprime is pronounced /ˈsʌb.pɹʌɪm/ (UK).

Words near subprime in the dictionary

  1. subpreputial
  2. subprimal
  3. subprimary
  4. subprimate
  5. subprimates
  6. subprime
  7. subprimes
  8. subprincipal
  9. subprincipals
  10. subprinciple
  11. subprinciples

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subprime (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.

Last updated:

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