Word.ws English Dictionary

underlining

underlining is the present participle and gerund of underline.

Meaning of underline

Verb

underline (third-person singular simple present underlines, present participle underlining, simple past and past participle underlined)

  1. To draw a line underneath something, especially to add emphasis.
    • underline the important words in the text
    Synonyms:
    underscore
  2. (figuratively) To emphasise or stress something.
    • The Midlanders will hope the victory will kickstart a campaign that looked to have hit the buffers, but the sense of trepidation enveloping the Reebok Stadium heading into the new year underlines the seriousness of the predicament facing Owen Coyle's men.2011 December 10, Marc Higginson, “Bolton 1 - 2 Aston Villa”, in BBCSport
  3. (figuratively, obsolete) To influence secretly.
    • By mere chance in appearance, though underlined with a providence, they had a full light of the infanta.1642, Henry Wotton, The Life and Death of the Duke of Buckingham

See all 8 meanings of underline

Noun (1)

underlining (countable and uncountable, plural underlinings)

  1. An act or instance of marking text with an underline.
    • There are so many underlinings, so many exclamation points in the margins, and so much highlighting from my many readings and appreciatings that it looks like a case of severe book abuse. It is not; these are marks of love.2005, Theodore Cheney, Getting the Words Right, page 238
    Synonyms:
    underlineation

Noun (2)

underlining (plural underlinings)

  1. A lining on the inside of a garment.

Synonyms of underlining

Forms of underlining

pluralunderlinings

Origin of underlining

From underline + -ing.

From under- + lining.

Questions about underlining

What does underlining mean?
Underlining means an act or instance of marking text with an underline.
What is underlining the present participle and gerund of?
Underlining is the present participle and gerund of underline.
What part of speech is underlining?
Underlining is a noun.
What is the plural of underlining?
The plural of underlining is underlinings.

Words near underlining in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underlining (page history and authors); underline (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)-Flame, not lame-underlining.wav.

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