Netherworld

noun

noun ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The place to which one's spirit descends upon death, conceived as below the surface of the earth.

    "In some religions, one's soul departs to a netherworld, instead of the heavens."

  2. 2
    (religion) the world of the dead wordnet
  3. 3
    The locale of the spirit world or afterlife, whether deemed to be situated below the world of the living or not.

    "While I was astrally projecting, I felt my soul pass through many insubstantial netherworlds."

  4. 4
    Specifically, a location of punishment in the afterlife; a hell.

    "The missionary was motivated by a sincere desire to rescue souls from eternal torment in the netherworld."

  5. 5
    A hidden, shadowy, or sinister subculture, such as that of organized crime. broadly

    "Richard had been initiated into the netherworld of dog racing by his father, and knew all the popular greyhound performance-enhancing drugs."

Synonyms

All synonyms
underworldhadeshellperditionabyssastral plane

Example

More examples

"They went down into the netherworld."

Etymology

From nether- (“beneath, lower”) + world.

Related phrases

organized crimespirit world

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.