Word.ws English Dictionary

underling

UK/ˈʌndəlɪŋ//ˈʌndɚlɪŋ/

underling noun: a subordinate, or person of lesser rank or authority.

Noun

underling (plural underlings)

  1. A subordinate, or person of lesser rank or authority.
    • The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, / But in ourselves, that we are underlings.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • "I love not that underlings should perceive my wisdom."1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC
  2. A low, wretched person.

underling meaning in Urdu, Malayalam and Thai

underling in Urdu

underling
ادنیٰ عہدے دار adna ôhdey dār

underling in Malayalam

subordinate, inferior, junior
ക്ഷുദ്രനിയോഗി, താല്ക്കാലിക ക്ഷുദ്രസേവകൻ, ആഖുഘാതൻ, മോശപ്പെട്ട തൊഴിൽ ചെയ്യുന്നവൻ, കീഴാൾ, കീഴാളൻ

underling in Thai

a subordinate, or person of lesser rank or authority
ลูกน้อง lûuk-nɔ́ɔng

Examples of underling in a sentence

  • His decision to stay at the compound in the face of possible assassination set an example, making it more difficult for his underlings to cut and run.2022 December 7, Simon Shuster, “2022 Person of the Year: Volodymyr Zelensky”, in Time, archived from the original on 04 Jan 2023:
  • It would be read by more than 1,000 of his underlings at the company.2023 November 7, Rob Copeland, “‘Ray, This Is a Religion’”, in New York Magazine:

All 11 example sentences with underling

Synonyms of underling

Antonyms

Forms of underling

pluralunderlings

Origin of underling

From Middle English underling, from Old English underling. By surface analysis, under + -ling.

Questions about underling

What does underling mean?
Underling means a subordinate, or person of lesser rank or authority.
What is underling in Urdu?
Underling in Urdu is ادنیٰ عہدے دار (adna ôhdey dār). See Underling meaning in Urdu.
How do you use underling in a sentence?
His decision to stay at the compound in the face of possible assassination set an example, making it more difficult for his underlings to cut and run.
What part of speech is underling?
Underling is a noun.
How do you pronounce underling?
Underling is pronounced /ˈʌndəlɪŋ/ (UK).
What is the plural of underling?
The plural of underling is underlings.

Words near underling in the dictionary

  1. underlinen
  2. underlinens
  3. underliner
  4. underliners
  5. underlines
  6. underling
  7. underlings
  8. underlining
  9. underlinings
  10. underlinked
  11. underlip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underling (page history and authors); ادنیٰ عہدے دار (Urdu) (page history and authors); underling (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license). 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-us-underling.ogg.

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