Underground Meaning
/ˌʌn.dəˈɡɹaʊnd/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjBelow the ground; below the surface of the Earth.
adjHidden, furtive, secretive.
Sentence Examples
Tom stood on the platform in Westminster Underground Station.
The plant has an underground stem.
Rescuers found victims trapped several feet underground.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ train system in the city is very fast.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We traveled to the city center by taking the ____ railway, which is much faster than taking a bus today.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English undergrounde (adverb), equivalent to under + ground or under- + ground. Compare Dutch ondergrond, ondergronds, German Untergrund, Danish undergrunds.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"One of the hidden glories of Victorian engineering is proper drains. Isolating a city’s effluent and shipping it away in underground sewers has probably saved more lives than any medical procedure except vaccination."
— 2014 June 14, “It’s a gas”, in The Economist, volume 411, number 8891, London: The Economist Group, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 Jun 2014:
"‘[…]he wrote to me last week telling me about an incredible bitch of a row blazing there on account of someone having been and gone and produced an unofficial magazine called Raddled, full of obscene libellous Oz-like filth. And what I though, what Sammy and I thought, was—why not?’ ‘Why not what?’ said Tom. ‘Why not do the same thing here?’ ‘You mean an underground magazine?’ ‘Yup.’"
— 1991, Stephen Fry, The Liar, page 27:
""In many ways, it showed there was no longer an underground, as such. This proved that there was no longer one society with everyone agreeing how to live . . . The underground had officially come above ground, and consequently no longer existed.""
— 2010 March 20, James Campbell, “Barry Miles: 'I think of the 60s as a supermarket of ideas. We were looking for new ways to live'”, in The Guardian:
"Victor, please, don't go to the underground meeting tonight."
— 1942, Julius J. Epstein, Philip G. Epstein, Howard Koch, Casablanca, spoken by Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman):
"One is to underground where no other alternative will work, and this method should be used universally in urban regions as it now is in “downtown” sections."
— 1962, David Pesonen, “Battles Over Energy”, in Carolyn Merchant, editor, Green Versus Gold: Sources in California's Environmental History, Island Press, published 1998, →ISBN, page 325:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ train system in the city is very fast.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
We traveled to the city center by taking the ____ railway, which is much faster than taking a bus today.