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

And, in addition, participants’ self-reporting introduces subjectivity to the data. —New Atlas, 22 Sep. 2024

What’s more, World Aquatics set up a new scoring system in 2023 to de-emphasize subjectivity and put more focus on a routine’s objective difficulty in terms of overall points. —Julia Sullivan, SELF, 6 Aug. 2024

The truth is there, but its concealment arises from what makes testimony imprecise and evidence incomplete—namely, the failure to account for the personalities and self-interest of its observers, for the subjectivity that stands in the way of objective fact. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 30 Oct. 2024

The same sensorial subjectivity is true for objects in space. —Phil Plait, Scientific American, 25 Oct. 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)