Word.ws English Dictionary

underneath

/ˌʌndəˈniːθ/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Canada/ˌʌndɚˈniθ/

underneath adverb: below; in a place beneath.

Adverb

underneath (not comparable)

  1. Below; in a place beneath.
    • I can't take my sweater off: I amn't wearing anything else on underneath.
    • I lifted up the pile of clothes, and underneath, on the floor, was a dark red stain.
  2. On the underside or lower face.
    • No insects exhibit, like them, what may be termed four net-work eyes. It is very easy to perceive them in looking at the animal from above, and then examining it underneath1832, Georges Cuvier, translated by Edward Griffith, edited by Georges Cuvier, Edward Pidgeon, and Edward Griffith, The Animal Kingdom: Arranged in Conformity with Its Organization, volume 14...

Preposition

underneath

  1. Under, below, beneath.
    • Underneath the water, all was calm.
    • We flew underneath the bridge.
  2. Under the control or power of.
    • There was little freedom underneath the Nazi jackboot.

Adjective

underneath (not comparable)

  1. Under, lower.
    • You can have the underneath bunk.
    • The underneath part is harder to reach.

Noun

underneath (usually uncountable, plural underneaths)

  1. (usually) The bottom of something.
    • The underneath of the aircraft was painted blue.
    • Nawnim yelped, heaved away, struck his head on the underneath of the bed, and rolled into view bawling.1938, Xavier Herbert, chapter V, in Capricornia, page 64
  2. (usually) A background radio sound track played during a specific announcement or program.
    • The underneath is music from the latest album by ….2009, Jay Trachtenberg (radio host), KUT-FM Radio, Austin, Texas, 17 Dec.

underneath meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

underneath in Hindi

under, below, beneath
नीचे nīce
under, lower
नीचे nīce
the part under or lower
निचला niclā

underneath in Tamil

அடியில், கீழே

underneath in Urdu

نچلی طرف, نیچے, تحت, زیر

underneath in Malayalam

കീഴിൽ, അടിയിൽ, താഴെ, ചുവടെ
More languagesFewer languages
underneath in Arabic
تَحْت taḥt, أَسْفَل ʔasfal

Examples of underneath in a sentence

  • We looked underneath the table.
  • connected with it underneath, you see a very fine hair-spring.1825, Isaac Taylor, Scenes of British Wealth: In Produce, Manufactures, and Commerce, for the Amusement and Instruction of Little Tarry...
  • The way the place smelled was another—some sort of chemistry-lab stink on top, some other smell underneath it.1990, Stephen King, The Moving Finger:
  • It was a monolith of a golden color, opening at its base on to a cavern: its underneath was hollowed out by water.2002, Mary Ann Caws, Surrealist Painters and Poets: An Anthology, page 229:
  • I have been looking for an underneath I couldn't see.2010, Molly Brodak, A Little Middle of the Night, page 13:

All 40 example sentences with underneath

Forms of underneath

pluralunderneaths

Origin of underneath

From Middle English undernethe, undernethen, from Old English underneoþan (“underneath”), ultimately from Proto-Germanic *underniþer. Equivalent to under- + neath.

Words formed from underneath

Phrases with underneath

Words that rhyme with underneath

Questions about underneath

What does underneath mean?
Underneath means below; in a place beneath.
What is underneath in Hindi?
Underneath in Hindi is नीचे (nīce), निचला (niclā). See Underneath meaning in Hindi.
How do you use underneath in a sentence?
We looked underneath the table.
What part of speech is underneath?
Underneath can be an adverb, a preposition, an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce underneath?
Underneath is pronounced /ˌʌndəˈniːθ/ (UK).

Words near underneath in the dictionary

  1. undernamed
  2. undernatant
  3. undernatants
  4. undernature
  5. underne
  6. underneath
  7. underneath one's breath
  8. underneath the hood
  9. underneathness
  10. underneaths
  11. underness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: underneath (page history and authors); underneath (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); underneath (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); underneath (Malayalam 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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-uk-underneath.ogg, en-us-underneath.ogg.

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