What does submissiveness mean?
Submissiveness is the quality of being meek, compliant, and willing to yield to authority or control. It can refer to a person's characteristic behavior, to the manner in which someone responds to commands, or more broadly to a social or political pattern in which subordinate people accept the decisions of those above them. The word often carries a critical or disapproving implication because modern usage tends to associate submissiveness with insufficient independence, although it can also describe a deliberate choice to cooperate and avoid conflict. In literary and historical contexts, it may be used neutrally to characterize religious devotion, social hierarchy, or obedience. Submissiveness should not automatically be confused with simple politeness: cooperation and respect can be freely chosen, whereas submissiveness implies a pronounced readiness to comply. The related adjective is submissive, and the related noun submission is also commonly used in both favorable and unfavorable contexts.
nounThe quality of being submissive, meek, or readily yielding to authority or control. It can describe a person's demeanor, behavior, or willingness to comply with others' wishes.
- The quality of being meek, compliant, and willing to yield to authority or control.
"Her submissiveness made it difficult to determine whether she agreed or simply lacked the confidence to object."
"The manager's apparent submissiveness did not prevent him from making difficult decisions."
"In the novel, political submissiveness is portrayed as both a survival strategy and a source of moral discomfort."
The plural is grammatically possible but rarely used because the word normally functions as an abstract mass noun.
"The study compares different forms of submissiveness in institutional settings."
Submissiveness descends from the same Latin idea as sending something under: power, like the Roman submittere, is imagined as something that can be placed beneath a controlling authority.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Where does submissiveness come from?
The word comes from the Latin submittere, formed from sub- meaning “under” and mittere meaning “to send,” originally referring to sending or placing something under another's authority. English borrowed the Latin-derived verb submit, whose older senses included yielding or surrendering. From this root developed submission and, later, submissive and the noun submissiveness.
Related word forms
How submissiveness is actually used
The word is generally neutral to mildly disapproving in tone. It is often used in discussions of personal relationships, education, religion, politics, and workplace hierarchy, where it can imply excessive compliance rather than voluntary cooperation.
Easily confused with submissiveness
Submission is the act or state of yielding or submitting, whereas submissiveness is the personal quality of being consistently meek and compliant.
Submissive is the adjective describing a person or behavior, while submissiveness is the noun naming that quality.