Past tense of underlie
irregular verb
The past tense of underlie is underlay. The past participle is underlain.
Forms of underlie
| Base form (V1) | underlie /ˌʌn.dəˈlaɪ/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | underlay /ʌndəɹˈleɪ/ |
| Past participle (V3) | underlain /ʌndəɹˈleɪn/ |
| Present participle | underlying |
| Third person singular | underlies |
Underlay and underlain in a sentence
- Sun and storm had bleached the wood, moss here and there softened the crudeness of the modelling; sincerity underlay every stroke.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 6, in Klee Wyck
- The underlay in bar 3 is unclear in Handel's manuscript.From the entry underlay
- In “Beach Baby,” a countryish waltz, and “Babys,” a ballad with an itchy piano underlay, Mr.2009 January 18, Nate Chinen, “Sonic Adventures, From a Cappella to Zydeco”, in The New York Times. From the entry countryish
- The same belief underlay the providential view of history, in which the rise and fall of nations appeared as the expression of God's unsearchable purposes.1971, Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline of Magic, Folio Society, published 2012, page 88. From the entry providential
Meaning of underlie
- verb To lie in a position directly beneath something.
- verb To lie under or beneath.
- verb To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
Verbs like underlie
- lie (lay)
Questions about the past tense of underlie
- What is the past tense of underlie?
- The past tense of underlie is underlay.
- What is the past participle of underlie?
- The past participle of underlie is underlain.
- Is underlie a regular or irregular verb?
- Underlie is an irregular verb: its past tense is not formed with -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: underlie (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of underlie.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/underlie. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.