subjectivity

noun

sub·​jec·​tiv·​i·​ty (ˌ)səb-ˌjek-ˈti-və-tē 

: the quality, state, or nature of being subjective

Any attempt to link landscapes and music together can suffer from some measure of subjectivity.

—David J. Keeling

He thinks that scientists and philosophers have unjustly neglected the subjectivity of conscious experience and that this has made it harder for them to explain some of the workings of the mind.

—Anthony Gottlieb

Examples of subjectivity in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This interpersonal dynamic — a bona fide muddle of subjectivities — creates an unstable narrative context in which the story told and the story read are not easily aligned. —Rachel Vorona Cote, Washington Post, 1 July 2024

Based on the celebrated 2019 novel of the same name and created by its author, Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie delves deep into the subjectivity of its title character, a Londoner of Jamaican descent who works in social media at a newspaper but dreams of earning a byline. —Judy Berman, TIME, 28 June 2024

Freud’s theory of the Oedipal complex haunts every discourse about the development of sexuality and subjectivity. —Jenny Noyce, JSTOR Daily, 28 June 2024

Activists have raised concerns about the subjectivity of arrests. —Shira Moolten, Sun Sentinel, 25 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1803, in the meaning defined above

Medical Definition

subjectivity

noun

sub·​jec·​tiv·​i·​ty ˌsəb-jek-ˈtiv-ət-ē 

plural subjectivities

1

: subjective character, quality, state, or nature

2

: the personal qualities of an investigator that affect the outcome of scientific or medical research (as by unconsciously communicating a bias to the subject of the experiment)