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Surface vs Underneath - What's the difference?

surface | underneath |

As nouns the difference between surface and underneath

is that surface is the overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid while underneath is the part under or lower.

As a verb surface

is to provide something with a surface.

As an adverb underneath is

below; in a place beneath.

As a preposition underneath is

under, below, beneath.

As an adjective underneath is

under, lower.

surface

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The overside or up-side of a flat object such as a table, or of a liquid.
  • *{{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
    • , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=A very neat old woman, still in her good outdoor coat and best beehive hat, was sitting at a polished mahogany table on whose surface there were several scored scratches so deep that a triangular piece of the veneer had come cleanly away,
  • The outside hull of a tangible object.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-11, volume=407, issue=8835, page=80, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= The climate of Tibet: Pole-land , passage=Of all the transitions brought about on the Earth’s surface by temperature change, the melting of ice into water is the starkest. It is binary. And for the land beneath, the air above and the life around, it changes everything.}}
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across.}}
  • (lb) Outward or external appearance.
  • :
  • *(Vicesimus Knox) (1752-1821)
  • *:Vain and weak understandings, which penetrate no deeper than the surface .
  • *
  • *:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; and she looked it, always trim and trig and smooth of surface like a converted yacht cleared for action. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable,.
  • The locus of an equation (especially one with exactly two degrees of freedom) in a more-than-two-dimensional space.
  • (lb) That part of the side which is terminated by the flank prolonged, and the angle of the nearest bastion.
  • :(Stocqueler)

    • Synonyms

    * overside * superfice (archaic)

    Derived terms

    * surface mail * surficial

    Verb

  • To provide something with a surface.
  • To apply a surface to something.
  • To rise to the surface.
  • To come out of hiding.
  • For information or facts to become known.
  • To work a mine near the surface.
  • To appear or be found.

    • underneath

    English

    Adverb

    (-)
  • Below; in a place beneath.
    • (rfexample)
  • On the underside or lower face of.
    • (rfexample)

    Preposition

    (English prepositions)
  • Under, below, beneath.
    • Underneath the water, all was calm.
    We flew underneath the bridge.
    We looked underneath the table.
  • Under the control or power of.
    • There was little freedom underneath the jackboot.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Under, lower.
    • You can have the underneath bunk.

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • The part under or lower.
    • The underneath of the aircraft was painted blue.
  • A background radio sound track played during a specific announcement or program.
  • * 2009 , Jay Trachtenberg (radio host), KUT-FM Radio, Austin, Texas, 17 Dec.:
    • The underneath is music from the latest album by [...].