beneath
/bɪˈniːθ/
beneath adverb: below or underneath.
Adverb
beneath
- Below or underneath.
- Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.2013 May 11, “The climate of Tibet: Pole-land”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8835, page 80
Preposition
beneath
- Below.
- Our country sinks beneath the yoke.c. 1606 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Macbeth”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Beneath a rude and nameless stone he lies.1718, Alexander Pope, epitaph to Nicholas Rowe
- In a position that is lower in rank, dignity, etc.
- Their despicable behaviour is beneath contempt.
- He will do nothing that is beneath his high station.a. 1730, Francis Atterbury, in The Grub-Street Journal, Volume 1
- Covered up or concealed by something.
beneath meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
beneath in Hindi
- beneath, under
- तले tale
beneath in Tamil
- அடியில், கீழே, தாழ்வாக, அடிப்புறத்தில், தாழ, உட்புறத்தில்
beneath in Marathi
- below
- खाली khālī
beneath in Urdu
- میں, نیچے, تحت, تلے, ذیل, زیر
More languagesFewer languages
- beneath in Bengali
- অধ, তলদেশে, অন্তরালে, অভ্যন্তরে
- beneath in Malayalam
- ചുവടെ, താഴെ, താഴേ, കീഴേ
- beneath in Kannada
- ಕೆಳಗಡೆ, ಕೀಳ್ಗಡೆ
- beneath in Punjabi
- تھلے thalle
- beneath in Tagalog
- ilalim, sa ilalim ng, pumailalim sa, napailalim sa
- beneath in Arabic
- تَحْت taḥt, أَسْفَل ʔasfal
Examples of beneath in a sentence
- She settled in the window seat, drawing her leg up beneath her.
- Deep beneath the ocean, the Titanic was lost to the world.
- There was a crowd of toys pushed beneath the couch where the children were playing.
Forms of beneath
| alternative form | beneathe |
|---|---|
| alternative form | neath |
Origin of beneath
From Middle English benethe, from Old English bineoþan (“beneath, under, below”), equivalent to be- + neath. Cognate with Low German benedden (“beneath”), Dutch beneden (“beneath, under, down”), obsolete German benieden (“below”).
Words formed from beneath
Phrases with beneath
Words that rhyme with beneath
Questions about beneath
- What does beneath mean?
- Beneath means below or underneath.
- What is beneath in Hindi?
- Beneath in Hindi is तले (tale). See Beneath meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is beneath?
- Beneath can be an adverb or a preposition.
- How do you pronounce beneath?
- Beneath is pronounced /bɪˈniːθ/.
Words near beneath in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: beneath (page history and authors); तले (Hindi) (page history and authors); beneath (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); beneath (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); beneath (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); beneath (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); beneath (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); تھلے (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-beneath.ogg.
Cite this entry: “beneath.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/beneath. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.