Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use underlie in a sentence

40 example sentences · verb

Underlie means to lie in a position directly beneath something. Example: “A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.”

Examples of underlie by meaning

verbTo lie under or beneath.

  • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.

verbTo serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.

  • a doctrine underlying a theory
  • 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
  • Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers.2013 July-August, Sarah Glaz, “Ode to Prime Numbers”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4

More sentences with underlie

  • Universality underlies the aggregatability of labour, while mobility implies the proportionality of money value to labour time.2016, Giuseppe Freni, Economic Theory and its History, page 381. From the entry aggregatability
  • Deficits in these synaptoplastic processes could underlie some of the cognitive deficits exhibited by schizophrenia patients.2015 December 24, “Reactive Transformation and Increased BDNF Signaling by Hippocampal Astrocytes in Response to MK-801”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry synaptoplastic
  • It is not possible to envisage any process which might underlie either.2013, John Davies, God versus Particle Physics: A No-Score Draw, Andrews UK Limited, →ISBN. From the entry nonsensibility
  • This vexed question underlies Frank Cottrell Boyce’s hilarious and ingenious hymn to dadliness and all things dadly.2008 July 12, “Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce, read by Daniel Ryan; Macmillan, 6hrs, £16.99”, in The Daily Telegraph, number 47,621, page 31. From the entry dadliness
  • Alfar's analysis cuts to the quick of the socioeconomic structures that underlie marriage, primogeniture, monarchy, and imperialism.2005, Cristina Malcolmson, “Review of Fantasies of Female Evil: The Dynamics of Gender and Power in Shakespearean Tragedy by Cristina…. From the entry cut to the quick
  • Rights in this way stem from social conventions that concretize and shape the values that underlie them.2003, Larry Alexander, “Is Judicial Review Democratic? A Comment on Harel”, in Law and Philosophy, volume 22, numbers 3-4, page 280. From the entry concretize
  • The rationale for the rule excluding hearsay evidence—the unassessability of such evidence—also underlies Glithero J .'s ruling.1996, Canadian Criminal Cases—Third Series, volume 106, page 127. From the entry unassessability
  • All of these issues—subjectivity, intertextuality, reference, ideology—underlie the problematized relations between history and fiction in postmodernism.1988, Linda Hutcheon, A Poetics of Postmodernism: History, Theory, Fiction, Routledge, →ISBN. From the entry intertextuality
  • The term microgenesis has been proposed for the continuous formative activity which underlies cognition.1975, American Handbook of Psychiatry: Organic Disorder and Psychosomatic Medicine, page 272. From the entry microgenesis
  • Namakiers represent large, recumbent sheath folds underlain and flanked by rigid bedrock and overlain by air.1970, University of Texas, Bureau of Economic Geology (contributor), Report of Investigations - Issues 142-146, page 18. From the entry namakier
  • Lateritized etchplains are surfaces of low relief underlain by extensive primary laterite deposits.1969, Michael Frederic Thomas, Environment and land use in Africa, page 127. From the entry etchplain
  • Or had this bleakness underlain the caper from the start?2022, Jennifer Egan, “i, the Protagonist”, in The Candy House. From the entry caper
  • The vital power underlies acts of motion, the discretive power underlies generation and growth, and the attractive power assimilates nutrients.2017, David S. Sytsma, Richard Baxter and the Mechanical Philosophers. From the entry discretive
  • These reorganizations may underlie vicariation of lost functions following stroke.2016 January 12, “Post-Stroke Longitudinal Alterations of Inter-Hemispheric Correlation and Hemispheric Dominance in Mouse Pre-Motor…. From the entry vicariation
  • But there are also more proximate causes that underlie anagraphy.2014, Barry King, Taking Fame to Market: On the Pre-History and Post-History of Hollywood Stardom, →ISBN. From the entry anagraphy
  • The philosophy of cosmopolitanism underlies theories of global citizenship.2013 November 25, Caroline Ferguson, “What kind of global citizens are teachers creating?”, in The Guardian. From the entry cosmopolitan
  • This suggests that commentators such as Mahmood would do well to understand that quasiracism does not underlie all attacks on Islam.2011, Russell Blackford, Freedom of Religion and the Secular State, →ISBN. From the entry quasiracism
  • Hobbes is denying here that there are real objects, often called “universal”, which underlie our uses of language.2008 January 7, Glen Newey, Routledge Philosophy GuideBook to Hobbes and Leviathan, Routledge, →ISBN, page 39. From the entry bananahood
  • The asthenosphere that underlies the surface plates is not liquid in any vernacular sense, although it is relatively plastic.2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society, published 2011, page 79. From the entry asthenosphere
  • What I liked was the modesty that underlies Jacobson's antiformalism.1997 July 18, Fred Camper, “Don't Fence Me In”, in Chicago Reader. From the entry antiformalism
  • This latent syllabism, which underlies the alphabetism of the hieroglyphic writing, indicates with sufficient clearness the origin of the Egyptian alphabet.1995, Isaac Taylor, The Alphabet: An Account of the Origin and Development of Letters. From the entry syllabism
  • One Purpose underlies and interpenetrates all existence.1909, Bolton Hall, Life, and love and peace. From the entry maniverse
  • Phylles was still smirking at him, but there was a degree of uncertainty behind her expression, that had perhaps underlain her earlier hostility as well.2011, Adrian Tchaikovsky, The Sea Watch. From the entry underlain
  • Does this mean that religions are still more attached to (hybrid forms of) theocracy, clericocracy and monocracy than to democracy, which underlies the two principles?2011, Leslie Francis, The Public Significance of Religion, page 32. From the entry clericocracy
  • Trudeau insisted that we see ourselves solely as Canadians, that we set aside the historic compromises that underlie Canada as a federation.2000 October 6, John Richards, “Pierre Elliott Trudeau: 1919-2000”, in The Globe and Mail, archived from the original on 09 Oct 2019. From the entry mandate
  • Pareidolia underlies several forms of divination.1993, Raymond Moody, Paul Perry, Reunions: Visionary Encounters with Departed Loved Ones, New York, N.Y.: Random House, →ISBN, page 13. From the entry pareidolia
  • This assumption underlies the repeated comparison of hypnosis to scientific tests designed to measure the truthfulness of the subject, such as polygraphs and truth sera.1984 fall, John L. Plotkin, “The Previously Hypnotized Witness: Is His Testimony Admissible?”, in Military Law Review, volume 106, pages…. From the entry truth serum
  • Several structural basins, so-called "parks" within the crystalline rocks, are underlain by alluvial and terrace deposits, and in some cases, by Tertiary sediments.1975, Frits Van der Leeden, Lawrence A. Cerrillo, David William Miller, Ground-water pollution problems in the Northwestern United States. From the entry park
  • Finally, there are the latents that underlie manifestation as relationships of power, as cause to effect, condition to occurrence, or dependent variable to independent variable.1975, Rudolph J. Rummel, Understanding Conflict and War, →ISBN. From the entry latent
  • In the few areas underlain by horizontally bedded limestone, the surface soil is dark gray to black and peatlike, and the subsoil gray and marllike.1954, Soil survey of Wise County, Virginia, page 28. From the entry subsoil
  • It was filled with a kind of golden-brown planktonic algae known as coccolithophores, whose skeletons would form the chalks that underlie parts of Britain, Belgium and France today.2018, Tim Flannery, Europe: The First 100 Million Years, Penguin, published 2019, page 27. From the entry coccolithophore
  • We previously reported that parapinopsin is an ultraviolet (UV)-sensitive opsin that underlies hyperpolarization of the pineal photoreceptor cells of lower vertebrates to achieve pineal wavelength discrimination.2015 October 23, “Activation of Transducin by Bistable Pigment Parapinopsin in the Pineal Organ of Lower Vertebrates”, in PLOS ONE, →DOI. From the entry parapinopsin
  • Cook's multiplism represents a significant step toward the multiplistic mental model that underlies a mixed methods way of thinking and has indeed helped to shape my own thinking.2007, Jennifer C. Greene, Mixed Methods in Social Inquiry, →ISBN, page 23. From the entry multiplistic
  • Educating the public about some of the myths that underlie their fears that non-traditional families will of necessity be detrimental to the well-being of foster children.1985 December 7, Kim Westheimer, quoting Carol Brill, “Toy Dolls, Fake Dukakis 'Hear' Foster Testimony”, in Gay Community News, volume 13…. From the entry necessity
  • The paving downstream consisted of 18x18x8-inch blocks laid on edge over a brick base which in turn was underlain with a gravel or brick chip filter.1967, Journal of the Institution of Engineers Pakistan. From the entry underfilter
  • The graben constitutes a depositional basin and a topographic low, underlain by Cretaceous shales, in which volcanic debris accumulated in ephemeral lakes and streams in Oligocene and early Miocene time.1986, W.H. Raymond, "Clinoptilolite Deposit in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, South Dakota, U.S.A.", in Yūichi Murakami et al.…. From the entry ephemeral

Meaning of underlie

  1. verb To lie in a position directly beneath something.
  2. verb To lie under or beneath.
  3. verb To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.

Full definition of underlie

Questions about underlie in a sentence

How do you use underlie in a sentence?
Underlie is used as a verb. For example: “A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.”
What is a short sentence with underlie?
“a doctrine underlying a theory”
What does underlie mean?
Underlie means to lie in a position directly beneath something.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underlie (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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