How to Use understory in a Sentence

understory

noun
  • The sword ferns in the understory were more brown than green.
    — Manjula Martin, The New Yorker, 30 Sep. 2021
  • Katuk likes the understory, with dappled shade, but not deep shade.
    — Kenneth Setzer, miamiherald, 24 May 2017
  • In the understory of the old forest, a seed bank lay in waiting.
    — Jenny Staletovich, miamiherald, 27 Aug. 2017
  • These trees prefer a moister soil than the understory of tall pine trees would provide.
    — oregonlive, 22 Feb. 2020
  • The deer weaved through a tangle of understory and vanished from sight.
    — Paul A. Smith, Journal Sentinel, 17 Nov. 2022
  • Many fruits fall below the plants, which creates a dense understory of seedlings.
    — Tim Johnson, Chicago Tribune, 19 Nov. 2022
  • So certainly there were lots of insects in that understory that didn’t get away.
    — Natalie Krebs, Outdoor Life, 12 July 2024
  • The sight took me by surprise because this species tends to hang out in the understory of dense forests, often on steep slopes.
    — Kate Wong, Scientific American, 1 May 2026
  • An understory of ferns, lupines and tall grasses laps at the legs as hikers take on the gentle inclines.
    — Mare Czinar, The Arizona Republic, 5 Aug. 2023
  • Not only the big old trees, but the open patches, the new young growth, the canopy and understory, the dead and downed wood, and the soil.
    — Tribune News Service, oregonlive, 18 July 2021
  • Fern fanned out in the understory, along with canelo trees, bamboo, and tall, slender alerce, for which this park is named.
    — New York Times, 27 July 2022
  • My main goal is to establish an understory with dogwood, spice bush, redbud and red maple.
    — Cori Brown, baltimoresun.com/maryland/carroll, 29 May 2021
  • With their lacy foliage, ferns add stunning texture to the understory.
    — Kim Toscano, Southern Living, 12 Apr. 2026
  • The trees grow thin and tall, allowing for native species to flourish in the understory.
    — Erika Page, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Feb. 2023
  • The plants grew quick and strong, leaving canopies that crowded out any other plants that might have tried to take a foothold in the understory.
    — Denise Coffey, Courant Community, 12 Dec. 2017
  • The understory in this case was about loyalty, justice and fears for the future.
    — Amanda Ripley, Time, 17 Apr. 2021
  • And their size — and the size of everything around them, like jumbo-sized ferns in the understory — can mess with your sense of scale.
    — Mary Forgione, Los Angeles Times, 30 June 2022
  • Some require sprinklers to maintain an understory to support bugs to feed the birds.
    — Brandon Loomis, AZCentral.com, 15 Dec. 2025
  • Plant understory trees and shrubs under the canopy of larger shade and evergreen trees.
    — Jennifer Rude Klett, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 1 Oct. 2020
  • The understory is a sprawl of ferns and vines and the buttressed roots of trees that rise to form a nearly solid canopy high overhead.
    — Seija Rankin, EW.com, 22 Jan. 2020
  • Red-cockadeds won’t carve cavities in pines where the understory is tall and dense.
    — National Geographic, 17 Sep. 2020
  • Leaves in the understory are blackish-green platters, often dusty with pollen, and thinner than those above.
    — Rebecca Giggs, The Atlantic, 17 June 2021
  • The forest was tall and wild, with large branches and multiple layers of canopy and understory.
    — April Ehrlich, ProPublica, 12 Nov. 2024
  • The canopy was far more closed, the understory far more open; Berenguer and Xarope didn’t even need to prune the trail for our visit.
    — Alex Cuadros, New York Times, 4 Jan. 2023
  • Privet on the other hand will exist, as a wisp, in the understory of a forest just waiting for an opening.
    — Jefferson County Cooperative Extension, AL.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • If a lightning storm ignited shrubs and grasses, the fire would spread through a forest’s understory.
    — Matt Simon, Wired, 18 Aug. 2021
  • Or the secret unspoken understory that threads through the entire book.
    — Will Nevin, OregonLive.com, 30 Aug. 2017
  • His work here is to become part of the fauna, to enter the understory, to encode himself in nature.
    — Michael Paterniti Kiese Makeba Laymon Carina Del Valle Schorske Dessa Irina Aleksander Sam Dolnick Mark Binelli Maggie Jones Rob Hoerburger Jamie Lauren Keiles Devin Gordon Jazmine Hughes Jenna Wortham Jade Chang Taffy Brodesser-Akner Kaitlyn Greenidge Reginald Dwayne Betts Rowan Ricardo Phillips Wesley Morris Ismail Muhammad Anthony Giardina, New York Times, 24 Dec. 2020
  • There are grassy areas in this understory, and blowing trash, and seldom used foot and bike trails, some of them with crumbling asphalt.
    — Ian Frazier, The New Yorker, 15 July 2024
  • Even in the dark, damp understory of a Thai forest, this scorpion knows what’s moving around it.
    — Hanna Wickes, Miami Herald, 10 Mar. 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'understory.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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