subsidiary
/sʌbˈsɪ.di.əɹ.i/adjective, noun
subsidiary is spelled S-U-B-S-I-D-I-A-R-Y. The wrong spelling people search most is subsidary: about 240 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 13 of all searches for the word. Subsidiary is an adjective meaning “Auxiliary or supplemental”.
How many letters and syllables are in subsidiary?
| Letters | 10: S-U-B-S-I-D-I-A-R-Y |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 5 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 8.3 times per million words; the 8,036th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, subsidary, about 240 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell subsidiary?
Subsidiary is spelled S-U-B-S-I-D-I-A-R-Y. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 12 of the searches for subsidiary in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is subsidiary?
Subsidiary appears 8.3 times per million words in written English, the 8,036th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce subsidiary?
- /sʌbˈsɪ.di.əɹ.i/
- /sʌbˈsɪ.dəɹ.i/
- /sʌbˈsɪ.d͡ʒəɹ.i/
Subsidiary has 5 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Vealhurl-subsidiary.wav, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Wodencafe-subsidiary.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of subsidiary
- more subsidiary comparative
- most subsidiary superlative
- subsidiaries plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does subsidiary mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Auxiliary or supplemental.
They constituted a useful subsidiary testimony of another state of existence.
- 2
Secondary or subordinate.
a subsidiary stream
- 3
Of or relating to a subsidy.
subsidiary payments to an ally
noun
- 1
A company owned by a parent company or a holding company, also called daughter company or sister company.
- 2
A subordinate theme.
- 3
One who aids or supplies; an assistant.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Subsidiary in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | subsidiaire , secondaire , filiale |
| German | ergänzend, nebensächlich , Tochter-, subsidiär, untergeordnet, nachgeordnet |
| Portuguese | subsidiário, subsidiária , filial |
| Spanish | filial, subsidiaria, sucursal |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does subsidiary come from?
From Middle French subsidiaire, from Latin subsidiarius (“belonging to a reserve”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).