base
/beɪs/
"base" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“base” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #942. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #942
- frequency rank, English
- 31,241
- “B” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
Corpus desk
Index EN-base · base · English
base · rank #942 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-CORE #942
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 31,241
- PHOTO-FINISH aren't
Nearest frequency peer: aren't (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Frequency neighbourhood for “base”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- ways
ways
99,062 corpus weight
- access
access
99,061 corpus weight
- aren't
aren't
99,060 corpus weight
- base
base
99,059 corpus weight
- below
below
99,058 corpus weight
- created
created
99,057 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “base” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | base |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /beɪs/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #942 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “base” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around base (IPA /beɪs/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #942 among 31,241 “B” headwords. Wiktionary lists 37 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for base, with forms such as "abse", "baes", and "basse". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "be", "BS", "bus", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: 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, f… The correct English form is base, spelled B-A-S-E.
Definition
- 1Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
- 2Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
- 3The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis.
- 4A site, structure, or both, usually durable and often permanent, for housing military personnel and materiel.
- 5The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters.
- 6A basic but essential component or ingredient.
- 7A substance used as a mordant in dyeing.
- 8Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform.
- 9Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds that turn red litmus blue and react with acids to form salts.
- 10Important areas in games and sports.
- 11Important areas in games and sports.
- 12The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement.
- 13A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer.
- 14The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support.
- 15The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT).
- 16The lowest side of a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat.
- 17The lowest third of a shield (or field), or an ordinary occupying this space, the champagne. (Compare terrace.)
- 18A number raised to the power of an exponent.
- 19Synonym of radix.
- 20The set of sets from which a topology is generated.
- 21A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles.
- 22A sequence of elements not jointly stabilized by any nontrivial group element.
- 23In hand-to-hand balance, the person who supports the flyer; the person that remains in contact with the ground.
- 24A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached.
- 25Dated form of bass.
- 26The smallest kind of cannon.
- 27The housing of a horse.
- 28A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower.
- 29A kind of armour skirt, of mail or plate, imitating the preceding civilian skirt.
- 30The lower part of a robe or petticoat.
- 31An apron.
- 32A 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.
- 33A group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office.
- 34The forces and relations of production that produce the necessities and amenities of life.
- 35A material that holds paint or other materials together; a binder.
- 36Ellipsis of base leg.
- 37freebase cocaine
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how base appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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.
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 silv…
Etymology
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.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- abse
- baes
- basse
- bbase
- bsae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of base - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of May 6, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What does "base" mean?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "base", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.