Word.ws English Dictionary

under water

under water is the alternative form of underwater.

Meaning of underwater

Adjective

underwater (comparative more underwater, superlative most underwater)

  1. (not comparable) Beneath the surface of the water; of or pertaining to the region beneath the water surface.
    • Watch out for underwater obstacles.
  2. Beneath the water line of a vessel.
    • When the ship was brought into dry dock, it was found that she had underwater damage.
  3. (figuratively) In difficulty, especially financially.
  4. Having negative equity; owing more on an asset than its market value.
    • We've been underwater on our mortgage ever since the housing crash.
    Synonyms:
    upside down
  5. Of an option, having a strike price higher (call options) or lower (put options) than the current market price of the underlying asset or financial product; for example, an option to buy shares at $20 when the current market price is $15.

See all 9 meanings of underwater

Questions about under water

What is under water the alternative form of?
Under water is the alternative form of underwater.

Words near under water in the dictionary

  1. under the table
  2. under the weather
  3. under the wire
  4. under the yoke
  5. under tow
  6. under water
  7. under way
  8. under weigh
  9. under wraps
  10. under-
  11. under-accommodate

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: under water (page history and authors); underwater (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-under water.ogg.

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