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say it: suhb-JEKT
subject is a noun, verb and adjective meaning "the subject matter of a conversation or discussion". It carries 14 recorded senses.
something (a person or object or scene) selected by an artist or photographer for graphic representation
“a moving picture of a train is more dramatic than a still picture of the same subject”
a branch of knowledge
“in what discipline is his doctorate?”
“teachers should be well trained in their subject”
“anthropology is the study of human beings”
some situation or event that is thought about
“he kept drifting off the topic”
“he had been thinking about the subject for several years”
“it is a matter for the police”
(grammar) one of the two main constituents of a sentence; the grammatical constituent about which something is predicated
grammar
a person who is subjected to experimental or other observational procedures; someone who is an object of investigation
“the subjects for this investigation were selected randomly”
“the cases that we studied were drawn from two different communities”
make accountable for
“He did not want to subject himself to the judgments of his superiors”
possibly accepting or permitting
“a passage capable of misinterpretation”
“open to interpretation”
“an issue open to question”
“the time is fixed by the director and players and therefore subject to much variation”
being under the power or sovereignty of another or others
“subject peoples”
“a dependent prince”
likely to be affected by something
“the bond is subject to taxation”
“he is subject to fits of depression”
Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for subject come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.