base
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: bās
ipa: /beɪs/
ipa: /beːs/
rhymes: -eɪs
homophone: bass
Forms: form: bases
Etymology: From Middle English base, bas, baas, from Old French base, from Latin basis, from Ancient Greek βάσις (básis). Doublet of basis and bass.
Senses: glosses: Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
examples: text: Nanny Broome was looking up at the outer wall. Just under the ceiling there were three lunette windows, heavily barred and blacked out in the normal way by centuries of grime. Their bases were on a level with the pavement outside, a narrow way which was several feet lower than the road behind the house.
ref: 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 14, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
glosses: Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
A supporting, lower or bottom component of a structure or object.
glosses: The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis.
glosses: A site, structure, or both, usually durable and often permanent, for housing military personnel and materiel.
glosses: The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
qualifier: painting; pharmacy; painting; pharmacy
glosses: A basic but essential component or ingredient.
glosses: A substance used as a mordant in dyeing.
topics: cosmetics
lifestyle
glosses: Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds that turn red litmus blue and react with acids to form salts.
glosses: Important areas in games and sports.
A safe zone in the children's games of tag and hide-and-go-seek.
topics: ball-games
baseball
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: 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.
topics: architecture
glosses: The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement.
topics: biochemistry
biology
chemistry
microbiology
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support.
topics: business
electrical-engineering
electricity
electromagnetism
electronics
energy
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
physics
glosses: The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT).
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: The lowest side of a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat.
examples: text: The shield was silver, charged with a red cross voided (that is, with the centre cut out and only the edges left), between in chief (that is, above the horizontal limb of the cross) two black dragon's wings, and in base two red daggers, and in the centre of the cross a black winged helmet; on a red chief (a broad band across the top of the shield), a silver pale (a broad vertical band), and thereon eight black arrows crossed X-wise, four and four, and encircled with a black band, between on the dexter three bendlets (narrow bands slanting from dexter chief to sinister base) enhanced (that is, raised above the centre), and on the sinister a fleur-de-lis, all of gold.
ref: 1956 July, Col. H. C. B. Rogers, “Railway Heraldry”, in Railway Magazine, page 479:
topics: government
heraldry
hobbies
lifestyle
monarchy
nobility
politics
glosses: The lowest third of a shield (or field), or an ordinary occupying this space, the champagne. (Compare terrace.)
examples: text: The logarithm to base 2 of 8 is 3.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: A number raised to the power of an exponent.
topics: mathematics
sciences
glosses: Synonym of radix.
synonyms: word: radix
topics: mathematics
sciences
topology
glosses: The set of sets from which a topology is generated.
topics: mathematics
sciences
topology
glosses: A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles.
topics: group-theory
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A sequence of elements not jointly stabilized by any nontrivial group element.
topics: acrobatics
arts
cheerleading
hobbies
lifestyle
performing-arts
sports
glosses: In hand-to-hand balance, the person who supports the flyer; the person that remains in contact with the ground.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached.
examples: text: The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar.
ref: 1709, J[ohn] Dryden, J[ohn] Oldham, “(please specify the page)”, in Mac Flecknoe: A Poem. […] With Spencer’s Ghost: Being a Satyr Concerning Poetry. […], London: […] H[enry] Hills, […], →OCLC:
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: Dated form of bass.
topics: government
military
politics
war
glosses: The smallest kind of cannon.
glosses: The housing of a horse.
examples: text: […] with flowers of gold, the body lined with velvet, and the bases, or skirts, with satin; also a frock of black satin, lined with sarcenet, having three welts of the same.
ref: 1842, Joseph Strutt, A Complete View of the Dress and Habits of the People of England, page 246:
glosses: A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower.
examples: text: The base (skirt), as opposed to the practical skirt of the tonlet armour, is an affectation in imitation of the civilian fabric garment of the period and may well have been inspired by a similar feature on Maximilian's gift armour.
ref: 1977, Armours of Henry VIII:
text: Both knee-length bases are made from black velvet [...] There was a second type of metal skirt that could be worn with armour: the tonlet. [...] Unlike the base, however, the tonlet did not have a textile counterpart. [...]
ref: 2007, AHRC Research Centre for Textile Conservation and Textile Studies. Conference, Textiles and Text: Re-establishing the Links Between Archival and Object-based Research : Postprints, pages 47–49:
coordinate_terms: tonlet
lamboys
glosses: A kind of armour skirt, of mail or plate, imitating the preceding civilian skirt.
glosses: The lower part of a robe or petticoat.
examples: text: bakers in their linen bases
ref: 1613, John Marston, The Insatiate Countess:
glosses: An apron.
examples: text: Use the globe he inhabits as a base wherewith to measure the magnitude and distance of the sun and planets.
ref: 1834, Mary Somerville, On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences:
glosses: 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.
topics: government
politics
synonyms: electoral base
political base
glosses: A group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office.
synonyms: substructure
antonyms: superstructure
glosses: The forces and relations of production that produce the necessities and amenities of life.
glosses: A material that holds paint or other materials together; a binder.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Ellipsis of base leg.
examples: text: TYLER LENNON (played by Louis Healy): Ten grand a week we were clearing: base, white, meth, weed, anything. I can get you anything to get you high.
ref: 2019 January 20, Ann Cleeves, Paul Matthew Thompson, 1:26:51 from the start, in Lawrence Gough, director, Vera(Cuckoo) (9), episode 2 (TV series), spoken by Tyler Lennon (Louis Healy):
text: Shared you with my friends, the Pops they never had / You lived for our fishing trips, damn I had a dad / [...] / See, mine made sure he had every base covered / So imagine his pain finding base in the cupboard
ref: 2025 July 11, “The Birds Don't Sing”, in Gene Thornton, Pharrel Williams, Stevie Wonder, Terrence Thornton (lyrics), Let God Sort Em Out, performed by Clipse, John Legend, and Voices of Fire, Roc Nation Distribution, via Spotify:
glosses: freebase cocaine
Synonyms: sense: chemical compound that will neutralize an acid
word: alkali
Hyponyms: air base
code base
codebase
debase
first base
freebase
home base
knowledge base
military base
moonbase
naval base
power base
second base
subbase
surbase
third base
Derived terms: abase
acid-base
acid-base equilibrium
acid-base indicator
acid-base pair
agawan base
all your base are belong to us
basal
base 2
base-2
base address
base angle
base anhydride
base bag
baseball
base-ball
base ball
baseband
baseboard
baseborn
base box
base-burner
baseburner
base camp
base cap
base case
base censor
base character
base chief
base class
base coat
basecoat
base color
base colour
base communications
base course
base court
base exchange
base flashing
baseflow
base fluid
base form
base gas
base hit
base hospital
base isolation
baselayer
baseless
baselevel
baselike
baseline
base load
baseload
basely
baseman
base memory
basement
base molding
base moulding
basename
base note
base off
base off of
base-on-balls
base on balls
base out
base over apex
base pair
base-pair breathing
base path
basepath
base pay
baseperson
baseplate
base-player
base-playing
base point
basepoint
base port
base radio
base rate
base rate fallacy
base rent
base right
base ring
baserunner
base runner
baserunning
base-running
base sequence
base sheet
base ship
base shoot
base squadron
base station
base station subsystem
base-stealer
basestealer
base-stealing
basestock
base substitution
base table
basetender
base tunnel
base unit
base upon
base wallah
basewide
basewise
basewoman
baseword
base year
basic
basically
basics
basification
basify
basilar
basogenic
Bronsted base
Brønsted base
Bronsted-Lowry base
client base
cloud base
cocaine base
codebase
coinbase
conjugate acid-base pair
conjugate base
consumer base
contribution base
cooking base
cost base
cover one's bases
cranial base
customer base
data base
database
data-base
deep underground military base
disbase
double base
embase
empty base
exobase
extra base hit
fan base
fifth base
firebase
free base
freebase
get to first base
get to second base
gigabase
gnathobase
gynobase
helibase
Hoogsteen base pair
Hünig's base
imbase
installed base
isoanabase
isobase
isocatabase
kilobase
landbase
leafbase
leuco-base
leuco base
Lewis base
make first base
megabase
moon base
multibase
Navy Base
nonbase
off-base
off base
on base
on-base percentage
on-base plus slugging
outbase
panabase
petabase
phallobase
playerbase
polybase
postbase
prison base
prisoner's
prisoners' base
product base
pseudobase
rheobase
ribobase
rimbase
roadbase
Schiff base
seabase
skull base disease
snowbase
soup base
speaker base
stanbase
starbase
Starbase
star base
stolen base
subbase
superbase
surbase
tax base
terabase
timebase
time base
times on base
total base number
touch base
userbase
versioned object base
viewerbase
wave base
wheelbase
wingbase
Related terms: word: successor
sense: addition, summation
english: addend; total
translation: addend; total
alt: augend
word: + =
sense: addition, summation
english: sum
translation: sum
alt: summand
word: + +... =
sense: subtraction
roman: subtrahend
english: difference
translation: difference
word: − =
sense: multiplication, factorization; multiplier
roman: multiplicand
english: product
translation: product
word: × =
sense: multiplication, factorization; factor
english: factor; factor; product
translation: factor; factor; product
word: × ×... =
sense: division; dividend
roman: quotient
word: ÷ =
sense: numerator) / (denominator) = (quotient
english: with remaining
translation: with remaining
alt: quotient
word: Or sometimes
sense: exponentiation; base
english: power
translation: power
alt: exponent
word: =
sense: root extraction; degree
roman: radicand
word: √ =
sense: logarithmization
english: logarithm
translation: logarithm
alt: antilogarithm
word: log(base) =