Subaltern

/ˈsʌb.əltən/ · adjective

Meaning

Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain..

Definitions by Sense

1. Of a lower rank or position; inferior or secondary; especially (military) ranking as a junior officer, below the rank of captain.
2. (logic) Asserting only a part of what is asserted in a related proposition.
3. A subordinate.
4. (British, military) A commissioned officer having a rank below that of captain; a lieutenant or second lieutenant.
5. (logic) A subaltern proposition; a proposition implied by a universal proposition.
6. (social sciences, literary 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.

Example Sentences

a subaltern officer

Two weeks after giving birth[…] she [Rachida Dati] was removed and offered no consolation prize other than the subaltern position of No 2 on the UMP's list for the next European elections.

Celebrating the subversive practices of subaltern groups

She was an extraordinarily beautiful girl, Margaret Devereux ; and made all the men frantic by running away with a penniless young fellow ; a mere nobody sir a subaltern in a foot regiment, or something of that kind.

As a subaltern of 24, Neave was captured in the defence of Calais in May 1940.

Young refers sardonically to the existence of reams of postcolonial "theory", and promises to give us "postcolonialism from below, which is what and where it should rightly be, given that it elaborates a politics of ‘the subaltern’, that is, subordinated classes and peoples".

In Ghosh's novel, a canonical western scientist is pitted against a counterscientific group of native folk-medicine practitioners led by Mangala, a subaltern in every conceivable meaning of the term.

Synonyms for subaltern

Antonyms for subaltern

Related Words

Word Forms

• more subaltern
• most subaltern
• subalterns

Usage Notes

Choose a synonym only when it preserves the intended meaning, tone, and grammar of the full sentence.

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