Word.ws English Dictionary

subsidence

/ˈsʌbsɪdəns/

subsidence noun: the process of becoming less active or severe.

Noun

subsidence (countable and uncountable, plural subsidences)

  1. The process of becoming less active or severe.
    • The subdual or subsidence of the more violent passions.1754, William Warburton, Sermon preached before the King, at Kensington, October 27, 1754
  2. A sinking of something to a lower level, especially of part of the surface of the Earth due to underground excavation, seismic activity or underground or ground water depletion, or the rocks in a geological basin, due to continued deposition from above.
    • In the early hours of April 28, 1953, it was completely blocked by a subsidence, which caused the death of five persons, when a pair of semi-detached houses collapsed into the cavity.1957 June, “Notes and News: Clifton Hill Tunnel, Swinton”, in Railway Magazine, page 433
    • Everyone knows that a main line running through a coalfield is prone to speed restrictions because of land subsidence. […] The rate of subsidence may vary from less than an inch a month in the case of a deep seam of coal, to as rapid a decline as 16in a month above a shallow seam. The effect of...1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The subsidence problem”, in Trains Illustrated, page 651

subsidence meaning in Tamil, Bengali and Malayalam

subsidence in Tamil

அமிழ்தல்

subsidence in Bengali

হ্রাস, ভূমি ধস

subsidence in Malayalam

ഇരുന്നുപോകൽ, അടങ്ങൽ, ശാന്തമാകൽ, താഴൽ

Examples of subsidence in a sentence

  • The effect of subsidence on permanent way and civil engineering structures needs no emphasis.1961 November, “Talking of Trains: The subsidence problem”, in Trains Illustrated, page 651:
  • Subsidence was first noted in the late nineteenth century.2020, David Farrier, “Thin Cities”, in Footprints, 4th Estate, →ISBN:

All 10 example sentences with subsidence

Forms of subsidence

pluralsubsidences

Origin of subsidence

Latin subsidens, subsidentis, present participle of subsidere. Equivalent to subside + -ence.

Words formed from subsidence

Phrases with subsidence

Questions about subsidence

What does subsidence mean?
Subsidence means the process of becoming less active or severe.
What is subsidence in Tamil?
Subsidence in Tamil is அமிழ்தல். See Subsidence meaning in Tamil.
How do you use subsidence in a sentence?
The effect of subsidence on permanent way and civil engineering structures needs no emphasis.
What part of speech is subsidence?
Subsidence is a noun.
How do you pronounce subsidence?
Subsidence is pronounced /ˈsʌbsɪdəns/.
What is the plural of subsidence?
The plural of subsidence is subsidences.

Words near subsidence in the dictionary

  1. subsid
  2. subsidation
  3. subsidations
  4. subside
  5. subsided
  6. subsidence
  7. subsidence crater
  8. subsidence craters
  9. subsidences
  10. subsidencies
  11. subsidency

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subsidence (page history and authors); subsidence (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); subsidence (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); subsidence (Malayalam 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)-Flame, not lame-subsidence.wav.

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