Underbites

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. A dental condition where the lower teeth extend beyond the upper teeth when the mouth is closed; also refers to the action of having or developing such a dental misalignment; can describe appearances or bite-related traits involving this feature
2. The state in which the lower jaw protrudes past the upper jaw, causing a malocclusion; the condition can describe both the physical characteristic and the process of developing this jaw alignment; also used to indicate traits or features related to this dental structure
3. A jaw relationship characterized by the lower dental arch projecting farther forward than the upper one, resulting in an abnormal bite; this term covers both the condition and the process producing it; it can also denote the observable traits of such a bite configuration

Etymology: Underbite is a plain compound: "under-" joined to "bite." The "under-" element comes from Old English "under," which goes back to Proto-Germanic and has meant "beneath" or "below" for as long as the language has existed. The "bite" element traces back through Middle English "biten" to Old English "bītan," meaning to bite, and further to a Proto-Germanic root shared with the same verb across the Germanic languages. Put together, the word describes a bite in which the lower teeth or jaw sit in front of the upper ones, which is why it names a lower jaw that projects forward. The word is a transparent formation: anyone who knows "bite" and "under" can work out its meaning without a dictionary, and it developed as an everyday descriptive term rather than a coined or technical one. Underbites is simply the plural noun, and the verb sense uses the same spelling as a third-person form, so it follows the same pattern as any other noun-verb pair in English.

Synonyms: malocclusions, prognathism

Antonyms: overbites