Meanings
present singular third person subsumes · participle present subsuming · participle past subsumed · past subsumed
- transitiveTo place (any one cognition) under another as belonging to it; to include or contain something else.
Near-synonym: comprise
2 more examples
March 14, 2018', Roger Penrose writing in The Guardian, Mind over matter': Stephen Hawking – obituary A few years later (in a paper published by the Royal Society in 1970, by which time Hawking had become a fellow “for distinction in science” of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge), he and I joined forces to publish an even more powerful theorem which subsumed almost all the work in this area that had gone before.
1961: J. A. Philip. Mimesis in the Sophistês of Plato. In: Proceedings and Transactions of the American Philological Association 92. p. 453--468. no allusion is made to forms because Plato is subsuming under the class of productive crafts both divine and human imitation;
Synonyms: comprise
Synonyms & antonyms
verbTo place (any one cognition) under another as belonging to it; to include or contain something else.
verbTo consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule.
More synonyms by meaning
verbconsider (an instance of something) as part of a general rule or principle
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Medieval Latinsubsūmere
- Englishsubsume
Learned borrowing from Medieval Latin subsūmere, from sub- + sūmō (“to take”). Compare English consume.
More words from Medieval Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Bulgarian отнасям към
- отнасям към (otnasjam kăm)to consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
Catalan subsumir
- subsumirto place under another as belonging to it
Chinese Mandarin 歸入 /归入
- 歸入 /归入 (guīrù)to place under another as belonging to it
Czech začlenit, včlenit
- začlenitto place under another as belonging to it
- včlenitto place under another as belonging to it
- zařaditto place under another as belonging to it
Dutch onderbrengen, plaatsen in
- onderbrengento place under another as belonging to it
- plaatsen into place under another as belonging to it
- veralgemenento consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- verenigento consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
Finnish sisällyttää, liittää
- sisällyttääto place under another as belonging to it
- liittääto place under another as belonging to it
- subsumoidato place under another as belonging to it
- liittääto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- subsumoidato consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
French subsumer, impliquer
- subsumerto place under another as belonging to it
- impliquerto place under another as belonging to it
- généraliserto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- rejoindreto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- colligerto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
German einordnen, fassen
- einordnento place under another as belonging to it
- fassento place under another as belonging to it
- klassifizierento place under another as belonging to it
- subsumierento place under another as belonging to it
- zusammenfassento place under another as belonging to it
- verbindento consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- vereinigento consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
Greek υπάγω, εντάσσω
- υπάγω (ypágo)to place under another as belonging to it
- εντάσσω (entásso)to place under another as belonging to it
Irish fo-ghlac
- fo-ghlacto place under another as belonging to it
Italian classificare, includere
- classificareto place under another as belonging to it
- includereto place under another as belonging to it
- contenereto place under another as belonging to it
Polish włączać, włączyć
- włączaćto place under another as belonging to it
- włączyćto place under another as belonging to it
- ujmowaćto place under another as belonging to it
- ująćto place under another as belonging to it
- generalizowaćto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- uogólniaćto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
- uogólnićto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
Portuguese classificar, incluir
- classificarto place under another as belonging to it
- incluirto place under another as belonging to it
- subordinarto place under another as belonging to it
Russian включа́ть в какую-л. категорию
- включа́ть в какую-л. категорию (vključátʹ v kakuju-l. kategoriju)to place under another as belonging to it
Spanish subsumir, subsumir
- subsumirto place under another as belonging to it
- subsumirto consider an occurrence as part of a principle or rule
Swedish sammanfatta
- sammanfattato place under another as belonging to it
Turkish içine almak, dâhil etmek
- içine almakto place under another as belonging to it
- dâhil etmekto place under another as belonging to it
- ihtivâ etmekto place under another as belonging to it
- kapsamakto place under another as belonging to it
- sınıflandırmakto place under another as belonging to it
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with subsume
Cite this entry
subsume. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subsume
“subsume.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subsume. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “subsume,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/subsume.
Source: subsume on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.