Putting one thing under another in importance or authority — the noun for treating something as the lesser of two. Two main uses. First, the general one: the subordination of profit to safety means safety comes first and profit second. It often appears in this 'the subordination of X to Y' pattern, and it usually signals a deliberate choice about priorities. Second, the organisational one: subordination is the state of being under someone's authority in a hierarchy, so armies, companies, and governments talk about chains of command and subordination to civilian control. From this comes *insubordination*, which is the offence of refusing to obey a superior — you will meet that word far more often in daily life than the positive one. Social and political writers use the word in a third, critical way, about groups: the subordination of women, the subordination of one ethnic group to another. There it is an accusation, naming an unjust structure rather than a neutral arrangement. Grammar has its own quiet use: a subordinate clause is one that depends on the main clause, and *subordination* names that relationship — the opposite of coordination. It is a formal word throughout; nobody says it at dinner.