aboveground

above +‎ ground

• (US) IPA^(key): /əˈbʌvˌɡɹaʊnd/
• Rhymes: -aʊnd

aboveground (not generally comparable, comparative more aboveground, superlative most aboveground)

1. On or above the surface of the ground.
   • 1861, Charles Reade, chapter 60, in The Cloister and the Hearth:

     "This place Rome? It is but the tomb of mighty Rome." He showed Gerard . . . the gigantic vestiges of antiquity that peeped aboveground here and there.

   • 2012 March-April, Anna Lena Phillips, “Sneaky Silk Moths”, in American Scientist‎, volume 100, number 2, page 172:

     Last spring, the periodical cicadas emerged across eastern North America. Their vast numbers and short above-ground life spans inspired awe and irritation in humans—and made for good meals for birds and small mammals.

2. (figuratively) Not dead and buried; alive.
   • 1992, David Webb Peoples, Unforgiven, screenplay:

     Alice: I told you, he don't have no wife, not aboveground, anyhow.

3. Not of or relating to the social or political underground; in the open; existing, produced, or published by or within the establishment.
   • 2003, Henry Jenkins III, ‎Tara McPherson, ‎Jane Shattuc, Hop on Pop: The Politics and Pleasures of Popular Culture (page 228)

     More disturbing was that zines and underground culture didn't seem to be any sort of threat to this aboveground world.

   • 2006, Watching What You Eat (in Indianapolis Monthly, March 2006, page 82)

     And they argue that if aboveground activists continue to express public sympathy for their underground counterparts […]

   • 2014, Stephen Duncombe, Notes from Underground: Zines and the Politics of Alternative Culture

     But there is yet another interlocutor that precedes the underground culture of zines: the aboveground world of straight society.

• (on or above the surface of the ground): belowground, underground
• (existing, produced, or published by or within the establishment): underground

aboveground (uncountable)

1. The portion of society that is not underground.