adjective [onlybeforenoun]
1 important in a situation but not always easily noticed or stated clearly:
The underlying assumption is that the amount of money available is limited. * Unemployment may be an underlying cause of the rising crime rate.
2 existing under the surface of sth else:
the underlying rock formation
seealsoUNDERLIE
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
Where does this definition of underlying come from?
This entry for underlying is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Does underlying appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — underlying appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.