subaltern
adjective · noun
Simple meaning
Of a lower rank or position.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
suhbawlternIPA pronunciation (US)
səbɔltɚn
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
noun
Britishmilitary
A British commissioned army officer below the rank of captain
britishmilitary
A commissioned officer having a rank below that of captain; a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
social sciencesliterary theory
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.
A subordinate.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
Used this way, subaltern is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a military use: it belongs to service and operational language.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Military
- Historical writing
- News/reporting
- Technical/specialist writing
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Nearby words
- inferior , a specialist term, precise but narrower
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: of a lower rank or position
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.