netherworld

noun

The world of the dead.

noun

The part of society engaged in crime and vice.

noun

The place to which one’s spirit descends upon death, conceived as below the surface of the earth.

noun

The locale of the spirit world or afterlife, whether deemed to be situated below the world of the living or not.

noun

Specifically, a location of punishment in the afterlife; a hell.

noun

A hidden, shadowy, or sinister subculture, such as that of organized crime.

noun

(religion) the world of the dead