Word.ws English Dictionary

subterraneanness

subterraneanness noun: the quality of being subterranean.

Noun

subterraneanness (uncountable)

  1. (rare) The quality of being subterranean.
    • This subject has been investigated experimentally in order to obtain so far as possible a means of expressing mathematically the relative “subterraneanness” of various species of noctuid larvae.1921, Lewis Bradford Ripley, “The External Morphology and Postembryology of Noctuid Larvae”, in Stephen Alfred Forbes, William Trelease, Henry Baldwin Ward, editors, Illinois Biological Monographs...
    • And the Earth itself, that “feminine symbol” par excellence, with all her subterraneanness, her apparent immutability, would she be anything more than a pedestal which permits you to stand up straight?1981, Louky Bersianik [pseudonym; Lucile Durand], translated by Gerry Denis, Alison Hewitt, Donna Murray, and Martha O’Brien, “The Prince’s Nature”, in The Euguélionne: A Triptych Novel, Victoria...

Examples of subterraneanness in a sentence

  • But apart from this subterraneanness, you may not recognize Maxim Gorky’s monument to romantic naturalism, draped as it is in buffoonery, chaos, and lurid colors.1983 August 16, Carolyn Clay, “Gorky’s II: The next day; Kids’ night in The Lower Depths”, in Richard M. Gaines, editor, The Boston...
  • The subterraneanness, both physical and mental, enfolds its value, as a geode its flash, and that is where this visitor at least is going to leave it.2000, Edwin Morgan, “Roof of Fireflies (1999)”, in W[illiam] N. Herbert, Matthew Hollis, editors, Strong Words: Modern Poets on Modern...
  • A subterraneanness makes the earth shake, the surfaces.2002 summer, Hélène Cixous, “The Book as One of Its Own Characters”, in Ralph Cohen, editor, New Literary History: A Journal of Theory &...
  • Jazz clubs, and Ronnie’s in particular, are about nightness: the otherness, the subterraneanness, the Left Bankness, the all-the-things-your-parents-warned-you-against-ness.2006, Alan Plater, Doggin’ Around, London: Northway Publications, →ISBN, page 140:

Synonyms of subterraneanness

Origin of subterraneanness

From subterranean + -ness.

Questions about subterraneanness

What does subterraneanness mean?
Subterraneanness means the quality of being subterranean.
How do you use subterraneanness in a sentence?
But apart from this subterraneanness, you may not recognize Maxim Gorky’s monument to romantic naturalism, draped as it is in buffoonery, chaos, and lurid colors.
What part of speech is subterraneanness?
Subterraneanness is a noun.

Words near subterraneanness in the dictionary

  1. subterranean
  2. subterranean clover
  3. subterranean clovers
  4. subterraneanity
  5. subterraneanly
  6. subterraneanness
  7. subterraneans
  8. subterraneities
  9. subterraneity
  10. subterraneous
  11. subterraneously

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: subterraneanness (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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “subterraneanness.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/subterraneanness. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.