netherworld

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. The place to which one's spirit descends upon death, conceived as below the surface of the earth.
  2. The locale of the spirit world or afterlife, whether deemed to be situated below the world of the living or not.
  3. Specifically, a location of punishment in the afterlife; a hell.
  4. A hidden, shadowy, or sinister subculture, such as that of organized crime.

Word forms

netherworld netherworlds nether world

Etymology

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

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.