What does "underbreath" mean?

An utterance made so as not to be heard by most people in the area.

What is a synonym for "underbreath"?

Common synonyms include: aspiration, bated breath, breath, low voice, mumble, mumbling.

adj, adv, noun

adj, adv, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level

Noun

1
An utterance made so as not to be heard by most people in the area.
"The underbreath of our every prayer should be, “Father, not my will, but thine be done”"

Adjective

Adverb

1
Under one's breath; inaudibly or in a barely audible manner.
"Muttering curses underbreath, he jabs the beast sharply with his training stick ; the elephant is hairy and it, like the clown, is ignoble."

"Muttering curses underbreath, he jabs the beast sharply with his training stick ; the elephant is hairy and it, like the clown, is ignoble."

From under- + breath.

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