In mathematics, especially in set theory, a set A is a subset of a set B, or equivalently B is a superset of A, if A is "contained" inside B, that is, all elements of A are also elements of B. A and B may coincide. The relationship of one set being a subset of another is called inclusion or sometimes containment.
The subset relation defines a partial order on sets.
The algebra of subsets forms a Boolean algebra in which the subset relation is called inclusion.
If A and B are sets and every element of A is also an element of B, then:
If A is a subset of B, but A is not equal to B (i.e. there exists at least one element of B which is not an element of A), then
For any set S, the inclusion relation ⊆ is a partial order on the set of all subsets of S (the power set of S) defined by . We may also partially order by reverse set inclusion by defining .