base
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
Letters
4 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "base", 4-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "base" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "base" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
base is aEnglishnoun. It means: Something from which other things extend; a foundation. Pronounced /beɪs/. It ranks #942 in English word frequency. Often confused with be and BS.
| 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) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for base is 4 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /beɪs/. Corpus data places it at rank #942 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language.Wiktionary records 37 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 5 documented wrong-spelling variants for base, with forms such as "abse", "baes", and "basse". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "be", "BS", "bus", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
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… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is base, spelled B-A-S-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
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
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
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for base
Misspelling Variants of "base"
Frequency rank: #942 in English
Frequently Asked Questions
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index: