subterrain
subterrain noun: the bedrock or rock layer that lies beneath the soil and superficial features of an area.
Noun
subterrain (countable and uncountable, plural subterrains)
- The bedrock or rock layer that lies beneath the soil and superficial features of an area.
- In this way at least a crude picture of the subterrain can be built up during the survey.1982, The Geophysical Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Two subterrains have been recognised, separated by thrust boundaries: a) Baltic Cover Thrust Sheets b) Crystalline Basement Thrust Sheets1985, Rodney A. Gayer, The Tectonic evolution of the Caledonide-Appalachian Orogen
- A cave or underground room.
- Subterrains have been found in almost all the nations of antiquity; but philosophers have put themselves to little trouble to discover the motives for making these excavations, which were much varied in their forms.1833, John Billington, The Architectural Director: Being an Approved Guide to Architects
- At the latter place you will see human habitations scooped in the rock, and families living in subterrains — what is the word ? — caverns.1890, Sabine Baring-Gould, Jacquetta and Other Stories, page 104
- An underground region.
- The land under Rabbit seems to move, with the addition of yet another citizen to the subterrain of the dead.2006, John Updike, Rabbit is Rich, →ISBN
- Her roar of determination echoing throughout the subterrain, she made the leap with a foot to spare, but landed hard, and the pain of the sharp rock on her bare soles made her somersault forward not once but three times.2011, Mike Wild, The Trials of Trass Kathra, →ISBN
- An underlying basis or undercurrent.
- The roots of the misogyny, homophobia, and anti-Semitism that indelibly mark Modernism are to be found in the subterrain of changing sexual and political mores that constituted belle époque Faubourg society, and it is here that the story of these women begins — in Edith Wharton's drawing room.1986, Shari Benstock, Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900-1940, page ix
- For her and others, statements reverberated in enduring moral subterrains.2003, Robert R. Desjarlais, Sensory Biographies: Lives and Deaths Among Nepal’s Yolmo Buddhists, →ISBN
Adjective
subterrain (comparative more subterrain, superlative most subterrain)
- Synonym of subterranean.
- Some skinks have adopted a subterrain life and have dispensed with their limbs.1949, Walter Reginald Brook Oliver, The moas of New Zealand and Australia, page 4
- The secondary chamber, however, was tapped and the rock-melt, previously stored in this domain, moved sidewards through a subterrain outlet of the chamber.1975, Annali di geofisica - Volume 28, page 353
- Synonyms:
- subterranean
Examples of subterrain in a sentence
- The Kabarginskiy subterrain is represented by rocks of the Upper Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic, in the form of a band of sublatitudinal strike running through the northern part of the region.1999, Geology of the Pacific Ocean - Volume 14, Issues 4-6, page 548:
- Like the subterrain of mount Olivet, it resembled the mouth of an oven or a well ; and its diameter was at the most four cubits.1984, George Stanley Faber, The Origin of Pagan Idolatry - Volume 3, page 260:
- You are in a private penitentiary in the subterrain of Antarctica.2011, Mason Joiner, Bantam: A Novella, →ISBN, page 114:
- Thus, I do not use the term interchangeably with physicotheology, which I regard as a subterrain of natural theology, focusing particularly on purposive and adaptive design manifested in nature.2010, Michael Funk Deckard, Peter Losonczi, Philosophy Begins in Wonder, →ISBN:
Synonyms of subterrain
Forms of subterrain
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | subterrains |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more subterrain |
| superlative | most subterrain |
Questions about subterrain
- What does subterrain mean?
- Subterrain means the bedrock or rock layer that lies beneath the soil and superficial features of an area.
- How do you use subterrain in a sentence?
- The Kabarginskiy subterrain is represented by rocks of the Upper Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic, in the form of a band of sublatitudinal strike running through the northern part of the region.
- What part of speech is subterrain?
- Subterrain can be a noun or an adjective.
- What is the plural of subterrain?
- The plural of subterrain is subterrains.
Words near subterrain in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: subterrain (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.
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Cite this entry: “subterrain.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subterrain. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.