as in abyss
a social sphere that exists outside of the mainstream
a magazine article taking an insightful look at the underworld inhabited by street people
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Recent Examples of underworld
In the nineteen-twenties, the era of Prohibition, locals started to refer to Johnson City as Little Chicago, owing to a thriving criminal underworld in the city and in a surrounding swath of Appalachia.
—
Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
Host Ari Daniel speaks with Smithsonian contributing writer Tony Perrottet, who wrote recently about Rome’s underworld—the city lurking beneath the city.
—Ari Daniel, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2025
Jason—her partner—comes off as more laid-back but equally entrenched in the criminal underworld.
—Tahar Rajab, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 May 2025
The festival’s centerpiece headliner will be Deep Cover, a new action comedy from Tom Kingsley, that stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as a group of amateur improv comedians who get sucked into the London criminal underworld.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for underworld
Ronan Farrow, The New Yorker, 24 Mar. 2025
Host Ari Daniel speaks with Smithsonian contributing writer Tony Perrottet, who wrote recently about Rome’s underworld—the city lurking beneath the city.
—Ari Daniel, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 May 2025
Jason—her partner—comes off as more laid-back but equally entrenched in the criminal underworld.
—Tahar Rajab, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 May 2025
The festival’s centerpiece headliner will be Deep Cover, a new action comedy from Tom Kingsley, that stars Bryce Dallas Howard, Orlando Bloom and Nick Mohammed as a group of amateur improv comedians who get sucked into the London criminal underworld.
—Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 23 Apr. 2025
See All Example Sentences for underworld
Recent Examples of Synonyms for underworld
Noun
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She’s headed back into the abyss and that cycle of suffering and escape and return that’s moved and frustrated viewers across the years.—
Amanda Whiting,
Vulture,
27 May 2025
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Technology was seen as both salvation and abyss, a force capable of transcending human limits, but also one that could eclipse the human altogether.—
Amir Husain,
Forbes.com,
26 May 2025
Noun
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The other two-thirds are on a scale of anxiously hopeful to beyond desperate -- an amorphous netherworld of doubt that, yes, includes the Miami Dolphins with Tua Tagovailoa, or should.—
Greg Cote,
Miami Herald,
3 Apr. 2025
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But the film comes into its own at almost exactly an hour, as The Man begins the ritual and The Surrender threatens to go full occult gonzo, complete with a charmed circle and a bleak netherworld resembling Lucio Fulci’s 1981 splatter epic The Beyond.—
Damon Wise,
Deadline,
9 Mar. 2025
Noun
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In particular, the ocean battle, with Kong chained to an aircraft carrier as Godzilla attacks from the depths, is a masterclass in tension, staging and environment-building rarely seen in modern blockbuster cinema.—
Travis Bean,
Forbes,
15 Mar. 2025
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Even before the original series wrapped in 2022, the spinoff Fear the Walking Dead brought new depths to the franchise.—
Declan Gallagher,
EW.com,
14 Mar. 2025
Noun
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The gumshoe’s exploits, punctuated with suspense, dark comedy and a motley cast unique to the demimonde of the Mexican capital, have been made into films and a Netflix series and translated into English and other languages.—
Patrick J. McDonnell,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Jan. 2025
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One thing was certain: Per its title, it was set in the demimonde of the galaxy far, far away, among its scoundrels, and smugglers, and bounty hunters and assorted other criminals.—
Christian Blauvelt,
IndieWire,
12 Mar. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Underworld.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/underworld. Accessed 6 Jun. 2025.
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