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
Trevorrow and Connelly then wrote an early draft of Deep Cover, which alters the real-life premise to feature improv actors who go undercover and climb the ranks of a criminal underworld.
—
Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 13 June 2025
Weekend picks Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: John Wick is back in the spinoff film Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as a ballerina-turned-assassin navigating the international criminal underworld.
—Brittney Melton, NPR, 6 June 2025
The thriller tells the story of a dental hygienist who is seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade.
—Katcy Stephan, Variety, 4 June 2025
Over the years, the building trade had brought him into contact with Liverpool’s criminal underworld.
—Simon Hughes, New York Times, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for underworld
Brian Davids, HollywoodReporter, 13 June 2025
Weekend picks Check out what NPR is watching, reading and listening to this weekend:
🍿 Movies: John Wick is back in the spinoff film Ballerina, which stars Ana de Armas as a ballerina-turned-assassin navigating the international criminal underworld.
—Brittney Melton, NPR, 6 June 2025
The thriller tells the story of a dental hygienist who is seduced by a mysterious mermaid into the dark and wet underworld of Florida’s exotic animal trade.
—Katcy Stephan, Variety, 4 June 2025
Over the years, the building trade had brought him into contact with Liverpool’s criminal underworld.
—Simon Hughes, New York Times, 11 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for underworld
Recent Examples of Synonyms for underworld
Noun
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Mike Birbiglia’s The Good Life, Marc Maron’s Panicked, Cameron Esposito’s Four Pills, and Bill Burr’s Drop Dead Years are all hours of comedy about reckoning with mortality, and each in their own way is a lovely, absurd, painful depiction of someone staring into an abyss and choosing to laugh.—
Kathryn VanArendonk,
Vulture,
6 Aug. 2025
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Which is a reminder that inflation is a policy choice, not some long and painful hike back from the proverbial abyss.—
John Tamny,
Forbes.com,
27 July 2025
Noun
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Nicole finds herself in an all too familiar place for those who have experienced the early phase of young-onset neurological disease, a netherworld between acceptance and denial.—
Gus Alexiou,
Forbes.com,
28 July 2025
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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
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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The show found its audience quickly, perhaps due to the main character’s quest to spread happiness and kindness at a time when the world was deep in the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.—
Lisa Gutierrez,
Kansas City Star,
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 22 Aug. 2025.
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