Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use undercurrent in a sentence

15 example sentences · noun, verb

Undercurrent means a current of water which flows under the surface, and often in a different direction from surface currents. Example: “The meeting was pervaded with an undercurrent of dread, as the managers tried not to admit that firings were looming.”

Examples of undercurrent by meaning

nounA tendency of feeling or opinion that is concealed rather than exposed.

  • The meeting was pervaded with an undercurrent of dread, as the managers tried not to admit that firings were looming.
  • Part detective story, part gangster, part urban melodrama, Film Noir was identified best by its dark and pessimistic undercurrents.1977, James Monaco, “The Shape of Film History”, in How to Read a Film: The Art, Technology, Language, History, and Theory of Film and...
  • Although the crowd was predominantly red-and-white, there was also a Romanian flavour, which these days in football terms tends to mean there is at least an undercurrent of discontent.2012 May 9, Jonathan Wilson, “Europa League: Radamel Falcao’s Atlético Madrid rout Athletic Bilbao”, in The Guardian, London, archived from...

verbTo flow under some surface.

  • The latter are stoically steady, impervious to the nervousness that still continues to undercurrent the Stock Exchange generally, despite an all-round rally.1905, The Electrical Review, volume 56, London: H. Alabaster, Gatehouse & Company, →OCLC, page 154
  • Her lips hardly moving, every feature steady, she undercurrented my narrative with ejaculations in French, Russian, Italian.1927, The Atlantic Monthly. A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics, volume 139, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor and Fields, […]...
  • The emotions undercurrenting the command left her with no doubt that he planned to do as he said.1996, Jane Lindskold, Smoke and Mirrors, New York, N.Y.: Avon Books, →ISBN

More sentences with undercurrent

  • The man was nearly drowned after a strong undercurrent swept him out to sea.From the entry strong
  • But a far Breton has a bit more substance and, in this recipe, a boozy undercurrent.2022 September 27, Aleksandra Crapanzano, “Far Breton: Breton Flan”, in Gâteau: The Surprising Simplicity of French Cakes (Essential…. From the entry far breton
  • I don’t believe Lindsay senses the satiric undercurrents beneath the machined ripples of Ballard’s prose.2011, Will Self, “The frowniest spot on Earth”, in London Review of Books, XXXIII.9. From the entry machined
  • This book takes readers into the hitherto unexplored undercurrents of one of the so-called minor genres of African orature—riddles.2015 April, Akíntúndé Akínyẹmí, “Introduction”, in Orature and Yorùbá Riddles, New York, N.Y.: Palgrave Macmillan, →ISBN, page 1. From the entry orature
  • Canuxploitation films form a constant undercurrent in both English Canada and Quebec, swelling at certain points to near-tidal proportions.2002, “Introduction: What Is Canadian Cinema?”, in Eugene P. Walz, editor, Canada's Best Features: Critical Essays on 15 Canadian Films…. From the entry Canuxploitation
  • He helps us to understand the insignificant points which mark the rapid undercurrents of the seemingly sluggish soul of Khalid.1910 January 12, Ameen Rihani, “On the Wharf of Enchantment”, in The Book of Khalid, New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead and Company, published…. From the entry sluggish
  • However, the real undercurrent of this narrative is a demonstration of the ease with which AI, specifically ChatGPT-4, can fabricate convincing yet entirely fictional scientific data.2024 February 4, Malik Sallam, Rainer Roehrig, Behrus Puladi, “Navigating the Peril of Generated Alternative Facts: A ChatGPT-4 Fabricated…. From the entry Omega variant
  • All of the stories have a subtle undercurrent of brutality, and the writing is consistently sharp, direct and darkly funny, and there’s not a clunker in the bunch.2006, Elizabeth Crane, "Books: Best book by a Chicago author" (Review of Trouble by Patrick Somerville), Time Out Chicago, 28 Dec.…. From the entry clunker
  • For millennia, right up until less than one hundred years ago, horses were an essential part of daily life—the smell of horse manure an undercurrent of every human odourscape.1999, Jonica Newby, chapter 3, in The Animal Attraction: Humans and their Animal Companions, Sydney: ABC Books, page 79. From the entry odourscape

Meaning of undercurrent

  1. noun A current of water which flows under the surface, and often in a different direction from surface currents.
  2. noun A tendency of feeling or opinion that is concealed rather than exposed.
  3. verb To flow under some surface.

Full definition of undercurrent

Questions about undercurrent in a sentence

How do you use undercurrent in a sentence?
Undercurrent is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The meeting was pervaded with an undercurrent of dread, as the managers tried not to admit that firings were looming.”
What is a short sentence with undercurrent?
“The man was nearly drowned after a strong undercurrent swept him out to sea.”
What does undercurrent mean?
Undercurrent means a current of water which flows under the surface, and often in a different direction from surface currents.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: undercurrent (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use undercurrent in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/undercurrent. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.