belowground

American  

[bih-loh-ground] / bɪˈloʊˌgraʊnd /

adjective

1. situated beneath the surface of the earth; subterranean.

2. no longer living; buried, as in a cemetery (usually used predicatively).

   All those who might have known about the incident are now belowground.

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Etymology

Origin of belowground

First recorded in 1955–60; below + ground ¹

Example Sentences

This decomposition has the potential to infuse above- and belowground food webs with carbon, which can affect energy flow between these critical ecological linkages and affect the species they support.

From Science Daily • Jan. 3, 2024

Roughly half the Amazon’s carbon store is belowground in the soil.

From Scientific American • Feb. 20, 2023

Many of these fungi live belowground, but researchers have traditionally paid little mind to them.

From Science Magazine • May 9, 2022

One of the problems is that it's easier to estimate how much carbon is stored aboveground, in towering trees, than belowground, where plants store carbon in their roots.

From Salon • Apr. 4, 2022

Mulch’s beard and head hair were actually a matrix of antennae that helped him to navigate and avoid danger belowground.

From "Artemis Fowl" by Eoin Colfer