Word.ws English Dictionary

underlie

/ˌʌn.dəˈlaɪ/US/ˌʌn.dɚˈlaɪ/

underlie verb: to lie in a position directly beneath something.

Verb

underlie (third-person singular simple present underlies, present participle underlying, simple past underlay, past participle underlain)

  1. (intransitive) To lie in a position directly beneath something.
  2. (transitive) To lie under or beneath.
    • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.
  3. (transitive) To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
    • a doctrine underlying a theory
    • […] she was carved into the bole of a red cedar tree. Sun and storm had bleached the wood, moss here and there softened the crudeness of the modelling; sincerity underlay every stroke.1941, Emily Carr, chapter 6, in Klee Wyck
    Synonyms:
    underpin
  4. (transitive) To be subject to; be liable to answer, as a charge or challenge.
    • The knight of Ivanhoe […] underlies the challenge of Brian der Bois Guilbert.1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co....
  5. To underlay.

underlie meaning in Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada and Indonesian

underlie in Urdu

نیچے واقع ہونا

underlie in Malayalam

കീഴിലിരിക്കുക, അടിയിൽ വർത്തിക്കുക, ബാദ്ധ്യതപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുക

underlie in Kannada

ಕೆಳಗಿರು, ಅಡಿಗಟ್ಟಾಗಿರು, ತಳಕಟ್ಟಾಗಿರು, ಅವ್ಯಕ್ತ ಕಾರಣವಾಗು

underlie in Indonesian

to serve as a basis of
mendasari, melandasi

Examples of underlie in a sentence

  • Universality underlies the aggregatability of labour, while mobility implies the proportionality of money value to labour time.
  • Deficits in these synaptoplastic processes could underlie some of the cognitive deficits exhibited by schizophrenia patients.
  • It is not possible to envisage any process which might underlie either.

All 40 example sentences with underlie

Synonyms of underlie

Forms of underlie

third-person singular presentunderlies
present participleunderlying
pastunderlay
past participleunderlain

Past tense of underlie: underlay

Origin of underlie

From Middle English underlien, underliggen, from Old English underliċġan (“to underlie, to be subject to, give way to”), equivalent to under- + lie. Cognate with Dutch onderliggen (“to lie below, lie on the bottom of”), German unterliegen (“to lie under, be subject to, succumb”).

Words formed from underlie

Words that rhyme with underlie

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about underlie

What does underlie mean?
Underlie means to lie in a position directly beneath something.
What is underlie in Urdu?
Underlie in Urdu is نیچے واقع ہونا. See Underlie meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is underlie?
Underlie is a verb.
How do you pronounce underlie?
Underlie is pronounced /ˌʌn.dəˈlaɪ/ (UK).
What is the past tense of underlie?
The past tense of underlie is underlay.

Words near underlie in the dictionary

  1. underleveraged
  2. underlevered
  3. underlevers
  4. underlexicalization
  5. underlicensed
  6. underlie
  7. underlied
  8. underlier
  9. underliers
  10. underlies
  11. underliest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underlie (page history and authors); underlie (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); underlie (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); underlie (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-underlie.wav.

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