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underlying adjective

Click to hear the UK pronunciation of this wordClick to hear the US pronunciation of this word/ˌʌn.dəˈlaɪ.ɪŋ//-dɚ-/ adj [before noun]

Definition

real but not immediately obvious
And what might be the underlying significance of these supposedly random acts?

(Definition of underlying adjective from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

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