Word.ws English Dictionary

subterraneal

subterraneal is the obsolete form of subterranean.

Meaning of subterranean

Adjective

subterranean (not comparable)

  1. Below ground, under the earth, underground.
    • Again the bearers took up the coffin, and cold and damp the subterranean air came from the opened vault. The tapers were lowered, and shed a ghastly light on the rows of piled coffins, and the moisture glittering on the walls.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XIX, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 162
  2. (broadly) Secret, concealed.
    • The subterranean tool of buying rigged opinion polling and media coverage is outlined in remarkable detail in chat exchanges recovered from the cellphone of one of Mr. Kurz’s closest allies and friends, Thomas Schmid.2021 October 17, Katrin Bennhold, “Fake Polls and Tabloid Coverage on Demand: The Dark Side of Sebastian Kurz”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

See all 3 meanings of subterranean

Forms of subterraneal

comparativemore subterraneal
superlativemost subterraneal

Questions about subterraneal

What is subterraneal the obsolete form of?
Subterraneal is the obsolete form of subterranean.

Words near subterraneal in the dictionary

  1. subterposed
  2. subterposition
  3. subterrain
  4. subterrains
  5. subterrane
  6. subterraneal
  7. subterranean
  8. subterranean clover
  9. subterranean clovers
  10. subterraneanity
  11. subterraneanly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subterraneal (page history and authors); subterranean (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: “subterraneal.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subterraneal. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.