underlying
Americanadjective
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lying or situated beneath, as a substratum.
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fundamental; basic.
the underlying cause of their discontent.
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implicit; discoverable only by close scrutiny or analysis.
an underlying seriousness in his witticisms.
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(of a claim, mortgage, etc.) taking precedence; anterior; prior.
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Linguistics. belonging to an earlier stage in the transformational derivation of a sentence or other structure; belonging to the deep structure.
adjective
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concealed but detectable
underlying guilt
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fundamental; basic
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lying under
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finance (of a claim, liability, etc) taking precedence; prior
Usage
What does underlying mean? Underlying most literally means situated underneath—lying under something, as in We have to fix the underlying layer before repairing the surface.Underlying perhaps most commonly means fundamental or basic. This sense of the word is used to describe things that are the basis, foundation, or cause of something else. A person’s underlying beliefs are their most essential beliefs, the ones that all their other beliefs, opinions, or values are based on. A single, underlying issue may be the basis of many other problems. Symptoms are caused by an underlying condition or disease.Less commonly, underlying can be used to describe something that lies beneath in a figurative way, especially something that’s difficult to detect because it’s partially hidden, such as underlying guilt or the underlying theme of a poem.Underlying is also the continuous tense (ing- form) of the verb underlie, meaning to literally lie beneath or to be the basis or foundation of, as in This is the main problem that underlies all the other issues. In a financial context, underlying is used more narrowly as a way of indicating what came first or what has precedence, such as in things like mortgages or insurance claims.Example: We are still working to determine the underlying cause of the collapse.
Etymology
Origin of underlying
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.
Benson also offers appointments of up to an hour and says she has more freedom to practise lifestyle medicine, looking at underlying causes and sometimes deprescribing.
From BBC
The underlying technique of training a model on the outputs of another is very common for AI labs to use for internal optimization, the Allen Institute’s Lambert told MarketWatch.
From MarketWatch
That has transformed the underlying economic logic of cities.
The underlying concern: AI could soon upend the business models for companies from wealth management to trucking.
For its studio and HBO Max streaming businesses this year, the company saw strong gains in adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a widely followed measure of underlying profitability.
From MarketWatch
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.
