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underlie

[uhn-der-lahy] / ˌʌn dərˈlaɪ /


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.

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In sum, a hard math problem in the 19th century propelled the conceptual breakthroughs that underlie all the location services on our phones today.

From Slate ● Jun. 22, 2026

“The paintings are about the smoldering tensions that underlie the American dream, so I think it’s a particularly apt moment to bring them back into the public eye.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 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

They concluded: The “motivation to disclose our internal thoughts and knowledge to others may serve to sustain the behaviors that underlie the extreme sociality of our species.”

From "A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age" by Matt Richtel

At some central banks, policymakers agree to a path for interest rates that underlies the forecast.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 16, 2026

That historical constraint helped researchers improve their measurement of the half-life governing the decay of potassium-40 into argon-40, the process that underlies argon-argon dating.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

This question underlies Naomi Kanakia’s snappily titled “What’s So Great About the Great Books?” a compelling if excessively cautious defense of classic literature.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

But five days after that, the DOJ notified the court in the Texas case that “the government has decided to maintain the definition” that underlies the ghost gun rule.

From Salon ● Jun. 2, 2026

It might turn out that the same tendency underlies the joining of organisms into communities, communities into ecosystems, and ecosystems into the biosphere.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas

In postproduction, Del Toro sometimes underlay Elordi’s screams with his own guttural noises or the roars of lions and gorillas, imagining a voice created by mismatched lungs and a throat from different people.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2025

However, Sidony says her flooring was never inspected, and has shown the BBC her end of tenancy agreement which instructed her to remove carpets, underlay, gripper rods and laminate flooring.

From BBC ● Nov. 27, 2024

California created an orchard for the world in large part by tapping into prehistoric aquifers that underlay the Central Valley.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2024

The turf was intended to function as an underlay for a plastic liner atop it as part of a construction project.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 22, 2023

The music of the pearl was triumphant in Kino’s head, and the quiet melody of the family underlay it, and they wove themselves into the soft padding of sandaled feet in the dust.

From "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck

A fundamental tension has always underlain the history of the Civil Rights movement, much as it did contemporaneous news coverage.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 3, 2026

Approximately 91 per cent of these forests in the northern hemisphere are underlain by permafrost.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 9, 2023

The drill site in northwest Greenland was 138 miles from the coast and underlain by 4,560 feet of ice.

From Salon ● Jul. 23, 2023

The region is underlain by quartz veins, rich in ore.

From Seattle Times ● May 22, 2023

A consciousness of this may have underlain the remarkable terms in which this grievous restriction was imparted to the United States Government, as evincing the singular indulgence of Great Britain.

From Sea Power in its Relations to the War of 1812 Volume 1 by A. T. (Alfred Thayer) Mahan

Bumatay appeared most interested of the three judges in the damage done when noncitizens do vote, and the underlying question of how the state should handle objections to alleged noncitizen voters when they arise.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 25, 2026

According to the researchers, the apparent preference for positivity largely reflects an underlying preference for safety.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

By following this path, researchers can observe how the underlying meaning of the text changes from one section of the story to another.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 24, 2026

Investors will watch how the BOJ assesses underlying inflation and explains the timing of further tightening.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 23, 2026

Somewhere, underlying all the other signals, is a continual music.

From "The Lives of a Cell" by Lewis Thomas


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