Word.ws English Dictionary

underlays

underlays is the plural of underlay.

Meaning of underlay

Noun

underlay (countable and uncountable, plural underlays)

  1. A layer (of earth, etc.) that lies under another; substratum.
  2. A soft floor covering that lies under a carpet.
  3. Anything that is underlaid.
  4. (historical) A piece of paper pasted under woodcuts, stereotype plates, etc. in a form, to bring them up to the necessary level for printing.
  5. Lyrics; or more specifically, the way in which lyrics are assigned to musical notes.
    • The underlay in bar 3 is unclear in Handel's manuscript.

See all 9 meanings of underlay

Questions about underlays

What is underlays the plural of?
Underlays is the plural of underlay.

Words near underlays in the dictionary

  1. underlayering
  2. underlayers
  3. underlaying
  4. underlayment
  5. underlayments
  6. underlays
  7. underlead
  8. underleading
  9. underleads
  10. underleaf
  11. underlease

Source and license

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