underlie
Americanverb (used with object)
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to lie under or beneath; be situated under.
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to be at the basis of; form the foundation of.
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Grammar. to function as the root morpheme or original or basic form of (a derived form).
The form “boy” underlies “boyish.”
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Finance. to be primary to another right or security.
verb
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to lie or be placed under or beneath
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to be the foundation, cause, or basis of
careful planning underlies all our decisions
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finance to take priority over (another claim, liability, mortgage, etc)
a first mortgage underlies a second
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to be the root or stem from which (a word) is derived
"happy" underlies "happiest"
Other Word Forms
- underlier noun
Etymology
Origin of underlie
before 900; Middle English underlyen (v.), Old English underlicgan. See under-, lie 2
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
True open-source models allow full access to training data and code, while open-weight models share the numerical parameters, or “weights,” that underlie them.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026
Talk to some folks in your family whom you trust to make sure you’re not overstepping any unspoken boundaries that underlie family relationships.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 15, 2025
"By uncovering how these microscopic regulators cooperate," Tolić says, "we are not only deepening our understanding of biology but also moving closer to correcting the failures that underlie disease."
From Science Daily • Dec. 10, 2025
But the “frontier” language models that underlie ChatGPT and Gemini run in giant data centers, and are far too demanding for a phone.
From Barron's • Dec. 5, 2025
This fact creates double difficulties for efforts to test the hypothesis that intellectual differences underlie technological differences.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
