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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

base.

Something from which other things extend; a foundation.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/beɪs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/bæɪs/Australia, New-Zealand/beːs/Ireland
  1. Something from which other things extend; a foundation.

    countable · uncountable
  2. Something from which other things extend; a foundation. A supporting, lower or bottom component of a structure or object.

    countable · uncountable
  3. The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis.

    countable · uncountable
  4. A site, structure, or both, usually durable and often permanent, for housing military personnel and materiel.

    countable · uncountable
  5. The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters.

    countable · uncountable
  6. A basic but essential component or ingredient.

    countable · uncountable
  7. A substance used as a mordant in dyeing.

    countable · uncountable
  8. Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform.

    countable · uncountable
  9. Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds that turn red litmus blue and react with acids to form salts.

    countable · uncountable
  10. Important areas in games and sports. A safe zone in the children's games of tag and hide-and-go-seek.

    countable · uncountable
  11. Important areas in games and sports. One of the four places that a runner can stand without being subject to being tagged out when the ball is in play.

    countable · uncountable
  12. The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement.

    countable · uncountable
  13. A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer.

    countable · uncountable
  14. The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support.

    countable · uncountable
  15. The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT).

    countable · uncountable
  16. The lowest side of a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat.

    countable · uncountable
  17. The lowest third of a shield (or field), or an ordinary occupying this space, the champagne. (Compare terrace.)

    countable · uncountable
  18. A number raised to the power of an exponent.

    countable · uncountable
    The logarithm to base 2 of 8 is 3.
  19. Synonym of radix.

    countable · uncountable
  20. The set of sets from which a topology is generated.

    countable · uncountable
  21. A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles.

    countable · uncountable
  22. A sequence of elements not jointly stabilized by any nontrivial group element.

    countable · uncountable
  23. In hand-to-hand balance, the person who supports the flyer; the person that remains in contact with the ground.

    countable · uncountable
  24. A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached.

    countable · uncountable
  25. Dated form of bass.

    alt-of · countable · dated · uncountable
  26. The smallest kind of cannon.

    countable · historical · uncountable
  27. The housing of a horse.

    archaic · countable · uncountable
  28. A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower.

    countable · historical · in-plural · sometimes · uncountable
  29. A kind of armour skirt, of mail or plate, imitating the preceding civilian skirt.

    countable · historical · in-plural · sometimes · uncountable
  30. The lower part of a robe or petticoat.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  31. An apron.

    countable · obsolete · uncountable
  32. A line in a survey which, being accurately determined in length and position, serves as the origin from which to compute the distances and positions of any points or objects connected with it by a system of triangles.

    countable · uncountable
  33. A group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office.

    countable · uncountable
  34. The forces and relations of production that produce the necessities and amenities of life.

    Marxism · countable · uncountable
  35. A material that holds paint or other materials together; a binder.

    countable · uncountable
  36. Ellipsis of base leg.

    abbreviation · alt-of · countable · ellipsis · uncountable
  37. freebase cocaine

    slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *gʷémtis Proto-Hellenic *gʷə́tis Ancient Greek βᾰ́σῐς (bắsĭs)bor. Latin basis Old French basebor. Middle English base English base From Middle English base, bas, baas, from Old French base, from Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis). Doublet of basis and bass.

verb/beɪs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/bæɪs/Australia, New-Zealand/beːs/Ireland
  1. To give as its foundation or starting point; to lay the foundation of.

    transitive
  2. To be located (at a particular place).

    transitive
    Troops have been based in Munich since the end of World War II.
    Top management decided to base our new Spanish subsidiary in Arévalo (Ávila).
  3. To act as a base; to be the person supporting the flyer.

  4. To freebase.

    slang
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *gʷémtis Proto-Hellenic *gʷə́tis Ancient Greek βᾰ́σῐς (bắsĭs)bor. Latin basis Old French basebor. Middle English base English base From Middle English base, bas, baas, from Old French base, from Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis). Doublet of basis and bass.

adj/beɪs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/bæɪs/Australia, New-Zealand/beːs/Ireland
  1. Low in height; short.

    obsolete
  2. Low in place or position.

  3. Of low value or degree.

    obsolete
  4. Of low social standing or rank; vulgar, common.

    archaic
  5. Morally reprehensible, immoral; cowardly.

  6. Inferior; unworthy, of poor quality.

    archaic
  7. Not considered precious or noble.

  8. Alloyed with inferior metal; debased.

    base coin
    base bullion
  9. Of illegitimate birth; bastard.

    obsolete
  10. Not classical or correct.

  11. Obsolete form of bass.

    alt-of · obsolete
    the base tone of a violin
  12. Relating to feudal land tenure held by a tenant from a lord in exchange for services that are seen as unworthy for noblemen to perform, such as villeinage.

    A base estate is one held by services not honourable, or held by villenage. Such a tenure is called base, or low, and the tenant is a base tenant.
Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *gʷem- Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *gʷémtis Proto-Hellenic *gʷə́tis Ancient Greek βάσις (básis)bor.? Ancient Greek βαθύς (bathús)bor.? Oscanbor.? Celticbor.? Late Latin bassus Old French basbor. Middle English bas English base From Middle English base, bas, from Old French bas, from Late Latin bassus (“low”). Cognate with Spanish bajo, Italian basso and base.

noun/beɪs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/bæɪs/Australia, New-Zealand/beːs/Ireland
  1. The game of prisoners' bars.

    US · historical · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Probably a specific use of Etymology 1, above; perhaps also a development of the plural of bar.

noun/beɪs/Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation/bæɪs/Australia, New-Zealand/beːs/Ireland
  1. Alternative form of BASE.

    alt-of · alternative
Where this word comes from

Variant forms.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.