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basin

Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.

Letters

5 characters

Language

English

word origin

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Detailed reference entry for the English word "basin", 5-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 "basin" 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 "basin" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.

basin is aEnglishnoun. It means: A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall. Pronounced /ˈbeɪs(ə)n/. It ranks #6,210 in English word frequency. Often confused with bin and bass.

Key facts for basin
PropertyValue
Headwordbasin
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
IPA/ˈbeɪs(ə)n/
Letters5
Frequency rank#6,210
Misspellings tracked7
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Frequency rank visualization

Position of basin in English word frequency (lower rank = more common)

Source: Wordfreq corpus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for basin is 5 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈbeɪs(ə)n/. Corpus data places it at rank #6,210 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 7 documented wrong-spelling variants for basin, with forms such as "absin", "baisn", and "basinn". 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, "bin", "bass", "bein", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *baskis Gaulish *baskisder. Vulgar 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”). 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 basin, spelled B-A-S-I-N, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
  2. 2
    A shallow bowl used for a single serving of a drink or liquidy food.
  3. 3
    A depression, natural or artificial, containing water.
  4. 4
    An area of land from which water drains into a common outlet; drainage basin.
  5. 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.

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *baskis Gaulish *baskisder. Vulgar 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”).

This word in other languages

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as: absin,baisn,basinn,basni,bassin,bbasin,bsain

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

Relative frequency of common misspelling types for basin

Misspelling Variants of "basin"

absin5baisn5basinn6basni5bassin6bbasin6bsain5
Misspelling Variants of "basin"

Frequency rank: #6,210 in English

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "basin"?
"basin" is spelled B-A-S-I-N. The IPA pronunciation is /ˈbeɪs(ə)n/.
What does "basin" mean?
As a noun, "basin" means: A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
What words are commonly confused with "basin"?
"basin" is commonly confused with "bin", "bass", "bein". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "basin"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "basin" is /ˈbeɪs(ə)n/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "basin"?
Etymology tree Proto-Celtic *baskis Gaulish *baskisder. Vulgar 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”). See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Nearby English words

Other entries that begin with the letter B in our English index:

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Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Frequency data from Wordfreq. Misspellings derived from Hunspell dictionaries.