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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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of underworld Ever since Homer's The Odyssey, storytellers have been fascinated with traveling beneath the surface of the Earth into the mysterious underworld. David Szondy june 08, New Atlas, 8 June 2025 Though Wick tries to return to a quiet life of retirement, a blood oath from his past forces him back into the criminal underworld. Emily Blackwood, People.com, 6 June 2025 Detectives believe his connections with the criminal underworld in Thailand may have begun during his 2019 spell there playing for PTT Rayong. Stuart James, New York Times, 6 June 2025 Based on a webtoon called Mercy For None: Plaza Wars, the Netflix noir follows the vengeance campaign of Nam Gi-jun (Doctor Lawyer’s So Ji-sub), a former key member of Seoul’s criminal underworld. Kayti Burt, Time, 6 June 2025 See All Example Sentences for underworld
Recent Examples of Synonyms for underworld
Noun
  • Legislators can schedule a summer session or wait until the fall veto session to deal with the fiscal abyss.
    Charles Selle, Chicago Tribune, 23 June 2025
  • All that being said, the grimmest predictions as to how Iran might react to the bombings from Israel and the U.S. — and how the region could spiral ever closer to the abyss — now look overblown.
    Niall Stanage, The Hill, 23 June 2025
Noun
  • The twin netherworlds—named after the mythical Greek god of the underworld and the pilot who shuttled souls across the river Styx—circle more than five billion kilometers distant from the sun, along an orbit that Stern’s Pluto expedition took nine years to reach.
    Kevin Holden Platt, Forbes.com, 22 June 2025
  • 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
Noun
  • 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
  • Dope Thief enlivens the formula with a pair of performances from Brian Tyree Henry and Wagner Moura that plunge us into the depths of male loneliness, then pull us out of the dark with a tender, vulnerable friendship that is as gooey and soft as the show surrounding it is bleak and bloody.
    Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 14 Mar. 2025
Noun
  • 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
  • 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

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“Underworld.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/underworld. Accessed 11 Jul. 2025.

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