Below
adv, name, prep ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 In or to a lower place. not-comparable
"The town is situated on a hillside, with a river running below."
- 2 In or to a lower place.; On or to a lower storey. not-comparable
"She lives below, on the ground floor."
- 3 In or to a lower place.; On or to a lower deck, especially as relative to the main deck. not-comparable
"The captain went below to inspect the engine."
- 4 Later in the same text. not-comparable
"This point is explained below."
- 5 Below zero. not-comparable
"It was forty degrees below."
- 1 (in writing) at a later place wordnet
- 2 in or to a place that is lower wordnet
- 3 on a floor below wordnet
- 4 further down wordnet
- 1 Lower in spatial position than.
"One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier."
- 2 Lower than in value, price, rank, concentration, etc.
"one degree below kings"
- 3 Downstream of.
"The River Thames is tidal below Teddington Lock."
- 4 South of.
"Sudan is below Egypt."
- 5 Unsuitable to the rank or dignity of; beneath.
"They beheld, with a just loathing and disdain, […] how below all history the persons and their actions were."
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- 6 Downstage of.
"Below the sofa is a low, round coffee table."
- 1 A surname.
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"Your marks were well below average this term."
Etymology
From Middle English bilooghe, equivalent to be- + low. Compare also earlier Middle English alogh, alow, aloȝ, alowe (“below”), benethen (“beneath”), Dutch omlaag (“downwards”).
Related phrases
More for "below"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.