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Underline vs Underlie - What's the difference?

underline | underlie |

As verbs the difference between underline and underlie

is that underline is to draw a line underneath something, especially to add emphasis; to underscore while underlie is to lie in a position directly beneath.

As a noun underline

is a line placed underneath a piece of text in order to provide emphasis or (in electronic documents) to indicate that it should be viewed in italics or that it acts as a hyperlink.

As an adjective underline

is passing under a railway line.

underline

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A line placed underneath a piece of text in order to provide emphasis or (in electronic documents) to indicate that it should be viewed in italics or that it acts as a hyperlink.
  • The character .

    • Verb

    (underlin)
  • To draw a line underneath something, especially to add emphasis; to underscore
  • (figuratively) To emphasise or stress something
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=December 10 , author=Marc Higginson , title=Bolton 1 - 2 Aston Villa , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=The Midlanders will hope the victory will kickstart a campaign that looked to have hit the buffers, but the sense of trepidation enveloping the Reebok Stadium heading into the new year underlines the seriousness of the predicament facing Owen Coyle's men.}}
  • (obsolete) To influence secretly.
    • By mere chance in appearance, though underlined with a providence, they had a full light of the infanta. — Sir H. Wotton.

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Passing under a railway line.
  • * 1950 , Leonora Fry, C. W. Huxtable, Get to know: British railways (page 26)
    • Just as it was sometimes necessary to lower the road to take it beneath an underline bridge, so in this case it might be necessary to raise it.

    See also

    * (wikipedia) (typography marks) ----

    underlie

    English

    Alternative forms

    * underly

    Verb

  • To lie in a position directly beneath.
    • A stratum of clay underlies the surface gravel.
  • To lie under or beneath.
  • To serve as a basis of; form the foundation of.
    • a doctrine underlying a theory
  • *{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Sarah Glaz
    • , title= Ode to Prime Numbers , volume=101, issue=4, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Some poems, echoing the purpose of early poetic treatises on scientific principles, attempt to elucidate the mathematical concepts that underlie prime numbers. Others play with primes’ cultural associations. Still others derive their structure from mathematical patterns involving primes.}}
  • To be subject to; be liable to answer, as a charge or challenge.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • The knight of Ivanhoe underlies the challenge of Brian der Bois Guilbert.
  • (mining) To underlay.