There must be something here, some underlying pattern or link that bound all of these disparate events together.

Behind the specifics of this Iran deal or that contra payment, there's an underlying pattern.

But then Father Baddeley had believed that there was a great underlying pattern.

At this moment, he felt sure he could perceive the underlying pattern of mystical forces focused on the crystal.

But, he said, there was an underlying pattern: "Big business is separating from the state and proceeding on its own path.

Predators will take targets of opportunity, yes, but there's always an underlying pattern beneath the victims' selection.

Although they may sound as if they don't have very much in common, they share a basic, underlying pattern.

Such isolated results can be flukes: all scores typically bounce around an underlying pattern.

The underlying pattern in modern societies may be of this kind too (Becker 1981).

"The basic, underlying pattern has not changed in any significant way."