underpinnings
Base holding things
Underpinnings are the foundations or supports that hold something up—literally the structural elements beneath a building, or figuratively the basic assumptions or ideas supporting a theory, argument, or system: The economic underpinnings of the policy remain shaky.
The word often appears when examining what lies beneath the surface: philosophical underpinnings, ideological underpinnings.
In older usage, underpinnings meant undergarments.
Structural bases below ground
- fundamentalsCore elements of something
- basisUnderlying support or principle
- premisesProperty with buildings
- assumptionsUnproven things taken as true
principles · tenets · axioms · groundwork · roots · core · bedrock · cornerstones
foundations
Structural bases below ground
- fundamentalsCore elements of something
- basisUnderlying support or principle
- premisesProperty with buildings
assumptions · principles · tenets · axioms · groundwork · roots · core · bedrock · cornerstones · essentials
foundation
Underlying support structure
- supportsSustains or reinforces
- substructureSupporting base beneath
- frameworkUnderlying support system
footings · piers · pilings · joists · beams · girders · bracing · shoring · buttresses · struts
- fundamentalsbasics, fundamentals, essentials, foundation, ABCs
- foundationsfoundation, foundations, base, footing, footings
- backbonevertebrae, vertebra, spinal column, vertebral column, spinal cord
underpinningssuperficialities
Shallow, unimportant matters
surface features · appearances · trappings · externals · symptoms
- philosophical underpinningsFoundational concepts and assumptions