Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English homepage

underlie

 verb
     
un‧der‧lie past tense underlay past participle underlain present participle underlying, third person singular underlies [transitive] formal
to be the cause of something, or be the basic thing from which something develops:
the one basic principle that underlies all of the party's policies
 ➔ underlying
Definition from the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Advanced Learner's Dictionary.

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