Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Subterranean |
SubterraneanAdjective1. Being or operating under the surface of the earth; "subterranean passages"; "a subsurface flow of water". 2. Lying beneath what is revealed or avowed, especially being deliberately concealed; "subterranean motives for murder"; "looked too closely for an ulterior purpose in all knowledge"- Bertrand Russell. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "subterranean" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Mining | Formed or occurring beneath the Earth's surface, or situated within the Earth. CF:subaerialsubterrane. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonym: SubterraneanSynonym: ulterior (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Depth | Adjective: deep, deep seated; profound, sunk, buried; submerged; subaqueous, submarine, subterranean, subterraneous, subterrene; underground. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Subterranean |
| English words defined with "subterranean": Amphicarpa bracteata, Amphicarpaea bracteata ♦ earthball, earth-ball, earthnut ♦ false truffle, family Rhizopogonaceae ♦ genus Rhizopogon ♦ hard-skinned puffball, hog peanut, Honey ant, Hypogeum ♦ Mattamore, Mine, mole cricket ♦ Plutonic action, puffball ♦ Rhizopogon, Rhizopogonaceae ♦ Sauba ant, sinkhole, Subterraneal, Subterraneous, Subterrany, Subterrestrial, swallow hole ♦ truffle ♦ Underconduct, Undercroft ♦ Volcanic foci ♦ white ant, wild peanut. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "subterranean": ant-proof course ♦ blowing well ♦ Devil catch the Hindmost ♦ flow well, flowing well ♦ Geohydrology ♦ house-block cap ♦ isostasy ♦ mineworks ♦ Nottingham ♦ OBSERVER, SEISMIC PROSPECTING ♦ Pelorus ♦ self-flowing well, SINKS, slugga, Sword Excalibar ♦ termite shield, termite-proof course, Turing tar-pit ♦ volcanic focus. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "subterranean": Underconduct. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Subterranean City (1913) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books |
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Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Damage to a nest of Formosan subterranean termites brings hoards of workers and soldiers with dark, oval shaped heads scrambling to repair the hole. Termites shown about 4 times actual size. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |  | Formosan Subterranean soldier termites (darker heads and mandibles) and worker termites in test tubes. The white disks at the bottom of the tubes contain different insecticides to guage their tolerance level. P. Credit: USDA ARS News; photo by Scott Bauer.. |
 | Cairo. Subterranean temple. Credit: Library of Congress. | ||
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | Hardly had Bruneseau passed the first branchings of the subterranean network, when eight out of the twenty labourers refused to go further. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Subterranean" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 97.89% of the time. "Subterranean" is used about 95 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 97.89% | 93 | 34,067 |
| Noun (proper) | 1.05% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Noun (singular) | 1.05% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 95 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "subterranean": subterranean water ♦ subterranean waters. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "subterranean"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | nëntokësor (subterraneous, underground), i nëndheshëm (underground), i fshehtë (backdoor, clandestine, close, colorable, colourable, confidential, cryptic, dark, deep, deep-seated, elfish, elvish, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, insidious, internal, latent, occult, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, secret, secretive, sly, stealthy, under the counter, under the table, under wraps, undercover, underhand, underhanded, unearthly, veiled), i bërë në fshehtësi. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | تحت أرضي, سري (clandestine, classified, close, closet, confidential, covert, cryptic, discreet, furtive, hugger mugger, hush hush, inmost, low key, mysterious, mystic, occult, off the record, private, privy, sacramental, secret, slinking, stealthy, surreptitious, umbilical, undercover, underground, underhand). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | потаен (cagey, cagy, covert, disingenuous, furtive, hush hush, inner, reserved, reticent, secret, secretive, sly, stealthy, underhand), подземен (underground), подпочвен (subaquatic, undersoil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 地下 (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Czech | podzemní (subterraneous, underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | underjordisk (below grade, underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | ondergrond (bottom, foundation, ground, soil). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | maanalainen (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | souterrain. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | unterirdisch (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | υπόγειος (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | תת קרקעי (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | föld alatti (subterraneous, underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | dibawah tanah. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | sotterraneo (basement, cellar, hypogeum, underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 地中 (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | ちちゅう (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Manx | fo-halloo (surreptitious, underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | ubterraneansay subterrâneo (cave, subterraneous). (various references) subteran (underground), subpãmântean (underground), ilegal (hot, illegal, lawless, unauthorized by law, underground, unlawful, unlawfully). (various references) подземный (subterraneous, underground). (various references) podzemni (subterraneous, underground). (various references) subterráneo (subterraneous, underground). (various references) underjordisk (hard, infernal, underground). (various references) yeraltı (subterraneous, underground, undersoil), toprak altındaki (subterraneous, underground), gizli (arcane, back door, blind, camera, clandestine, classified, closet, concealed, confidential, covert, cryptic, cryptical, crypto-, disguised, esoteric, furtive, hidden, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, huggermugger, hush hush, inner, intimate, latent, masked, occult, perdu, Perdue, private, privy, quiet, restricted, sealed, secluded, secret, secretly, slinky, sneaking, sneakingly, sneaky, snug, stealthy, sub rosa, submerged, submersed, subterraneous, surreptitious, ulterior, under cover, underarm, undercover, underground, underhand, underhanded, undisclosed, unsearchable, unseen). (various references) та"мний (arcane, back door, backstairs, clandestine, close, closet, colorable, colourable, covert, cryptic, esoteric, hideaway, hole-and-corner, hugger mugger, hush hush, invisible, mystic, occult, occulted, offscreen, private, secret, sly, sneaking, stealthy, surreptitious, undercover), підземний (subterraneous, underground), підземелля (catacomb, subterrene), печерний мешканець. (various references) bí mật (backstairs, clandestine, close, cryptic, cryptically, hush-hush, inward, inwards, private, subterraneous, surreptitious, undercover, underground). (various references) tanddaearol (underground). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | subterraneus. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "subterranean": subterraneanly. (additional references) | |
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"Subterranean" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: subteranean, subterrainean. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "subterranean" (pronounced subterā"nēun) |
| 7 | -t er ā" n ē u n | mediterranean. |
| 4 | -n ē u n | draconian, gorgonian, plutonian. |
| 3 | -ē u n | accordion, agrarian, alien, amphibian, arcadian, authoritarian, barbarian, bohemian, Campion, carrion, centenarian, centurion, chameleon, champion, circadian, Clarion, collodion, comedian, contrarian, criterion, custodian, Cyprian, disciplinarian, egalitarian, equestrian, galleon, Guardian, halcyon, herculean, historian, humanitarian, hyperborean, lesbian, libertarian, librarian, majoritarian, mammalian, median, meridian, Napoleon, nickelodeon, nonsectarian, oblivion, obsidian, octogenarian, Odeon, ovarian, pagurian, parliamentarian, pedestrian, planarian, praetorian, presbyterian, proletarian, salutatorian, scorpion, sectarian, seminarian, septuagenarian, simian, symbion, theologian, thespian, totalitarian, unitarian, utilitarian, utopian, valedictorian, valerian, vegetarian, veterinarian. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-b-e-e-n-n-r-r-s-t-u" | |
-1 letter: sauerbraten. | |
-3 letters: aberrants, bannerets, banterers, barrenest, renatures, saunterer. | |
-4 letters: aberrant, absenter, antbears, arbutean, arsenate, austerer, banneret, banterer, branners, ensnarer, narrates, nauseant, nauseate, ratsbane, rebaters, renature, sauterne, serenata, terranes, treasure, unbeaten, urbanest. | |
-5 letters: abaters, abreast, aerates, annates, antbear, anurans, arbutes, aureate, austere, banners, bannets, banters, barrens, barrets, barters, bearers, beaters, bennets, berates, branner, brunets, bunters. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-b-e-e-n-n-r-r-s-t-u" | |
+2 letters: subterraneanly. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Photo Album 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
