The quality or state of being subservient; instrumental fitness or use; hence, willingness to serve another's purposes; in a derogatory sense, servility. [1913 Webster]

"The body wherein appears much fitness, use, and subserviency to infinite functions." [1913 Webster]

"There is a regular subordination and subserviency among all the parts to beneficial ends." [1913 Webster]

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THESAURUS

subservience

abjectness, agreeability, agreeableness, back seat, baseness, biddability, compliableness, docility, ductility, facility, flexibility, helotism, helotry, humbleness, humility, inferiority, juniority, lower status, lowliness, malleability, meanness, menialness, minority, moldability, peonage, plasticity, pliability, pliancy, satellite status, second fiddle, second string, secondariness, serfdom, service, servility, servitorship, slavery, slavishness, subjecthood, subjection, submissiveness, subordinacy, subordinate role, subordination, subserviency, third string, tractability, yieldingness

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ROGET THESAURUS

subservience

Instrumentality

N instrumentality, aid, subservience, subserviency, mediation, intervention, medium, intermedium, vehicle, hand, agency, minister, handmaid, midwife, accoucheur, accoucheuse, obstetrician, gobetween, cat's-paw, stepping-stone, opener, key, master key, passkey, latchkey, open sesame, passport, passe-partout, safe-conduct, password, instrument, expedient, means, instrumental, useful, ministerial, subservient, mediatorial, intermediate, intervening, conducive, through, by, per, whereby, thereby, hereby, by the agency of, by dint of, by virtue of, in virtue of, through the medium of, along with, on the shoulders of, by means of, by the aid of, with the aid of, per fas et nefas, by fair means or foul, somehow, somehow or other, by hook or by crook.

Utility

N utility, usefulness, efficacy, efficiency, adequacy, service, use, stead, avail, help, applicability, subservience, function, value, worth, money's worth, productiveness, cui bono, utilization, step in the right direction, common weal, commonwealth public good, public interest, utilitarianism, useful, of use, serviceable, proficuous, good for, subservient, conducive, subsidiary, advantageous, profitable, gainful, remunerative, worth one's salt, valuable, prolific, adequate, efficient, efficacious, effective, effectual, expedient, applicable, available, ready, handy, at hand, tangible, commodious, adaptable, of all work, usefully, pro bono publico.

Tendency

N tendency, aptness, aptitude, proneness, proclivity, bent, turn, tone, bias, set, leaning to, predisposition, inclination, propensity, susceptibility, conatus, nisus, liability, quality, nature, temperament, idiocrasy, idiosyncrasy, cast, vein, grain, humor, mood, drift, conduciveness, conducement, applicability, subservience, tending, conducive, working towards, in a fair way to, calculated to, liable, subservient, useful, subsidiary, for, whither.

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