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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

basin.

A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.

5 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈbeɪsɪn/UK, US/-ən/UK, US[-n̩]UK, US
  1. A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.

  2. A shallow bowl used for a single serving of a drink or liquidy food.

    obsolete
  3. A depression, natural or artificial, containing water.

  4. An area of land from which water drains into a common outlet; drainage basin.

  5. A shallow depression in a rock formation, such as an area of down-folded rock that has accumulated a thick layer of sediments, or an area scooped out by water erosion.

  6. An enclosed or sheltered area of water where boats are moored, often equipped with piers, wharves, or docks.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *baskis Gaulish *baskisder. Latin bacca Vulgar Latin *baccinum Old French bacinbor. Middle English basyn English basin From Middle English basyn, from Old French bacin, from Vulgar Latin *baccinum (“wide bowl”).

verb/ˈbeɪsɪn/UK, US/-ən/UK, US[-n̩]UK, US
  1. To create a concavity or depression in.

  2. To serve as or become a basin.

  3. To shelter or enclose in a basin.

Where this word comes from

Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *baskis Gaulish *baskisder. Latin bacca Vulgar Latin *baccinum Old French bacinbor. Middle English basyn English basin From Middle English basyn, from Old French bacin, from Vulgar Latin *baccinum (“wide bowl”).

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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.