The “top‑bottom” opposition is a binary spatial opposition. It describes the orientation of objects in space as well as identifies the spatial qualification of an object and models the coordinate system of the linguistic (resp. dialectal) worldview. This article deals with the problem of the semantic structure of derivatives, i.e. fragments of the derivative clusters of the base words of this opposition: верх, гора (“top”) and низ, гора, (с)під (“bottom”). The author scrutinizes the semantics of the adjectives вéрхній (верховúй, верхóвний), горíшній (гóрний) / ни́ жній (низови́ й), дóлíшній (дóльний), спíдній (сподо- вúй). These semantic features are analyzed within three semantic subcomplexes: ‘the top / bottom of the object’; ‘high / low limit’; ‘surface (exterior / interior)’. The subcomplexes unite the meanings of the adjectives which are structured hierarchically. These meanings represent different aspects of Ukrainian life. This study applied the traditional onomasiological descriptive model, moving the focus from the meaning to the word. The analysed units represent semantic and derivational features which are typical for the dialects of the Ukrainian language. The sources of the study are historical and regional dictionaries and texts, as well as linguistic atlases. As the study is based on an analysis of historical sources and manuscripts of the Ukrainian language from the 11th century onwards, semantic changes were recorded at different historical stages.