SUPERORDINATE CLAUSE

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SUPERORDINATE CLAUSE. In grammatical analysis, a term for a CLAUSE that contains another clause. In It was raining when I left home, the sentence constitutes a superordinate clause, since it contains a subordinate when-clause. In I think it was raining when I left home, the clause beginning with it remains superordinate to the when-clause, but is at the same time subordinate to the superordinate clause that constitutes the sentence. See SUBORDINATION.