• enPR: bās, IPA: /beɪs/

base (plural bases)

1. Something from which other things extend; a foundation.
   1. A supporting, lower or bottom component of a structure or object.
2. The starting point of a logical deduction or thought; basis.
3. A permanent structure for housing military personnel and material.
4. The place where decisions for an organization are made; headquarters.
5. (cooking, painting, pharmacy) A basic but essential component or ingredient.
6. A substance used as a mordant in dyeing.
7. (cosmetics) Foundation: a cosmetic cream to make the face appear uniform.
8. (chemistry) Any of a class of generally water-soluble compounds, having bitter taste, that turn red litmus blue, and react with acids to form salts.
9. Important areas in games and sports.
   1. A safe zone in the children's games of tag and hide-and-go-seek.
   2. (baseball) One of the three places that a runner can stand without being subject to being tagged out.
10. (architecture) The lowermost part of a column, between the shaft and the pedestal or pavement.
11. (biology, biochemistry) A nucleotide's nucleobase in the context of a DNA or RNA biopolymer.
12. (botany) The end of a leaf, petal or similar organ where it is attached to its support.
13. (electronics) The name of the controlling terminal of a bipolar transistor (BJT).
14. (geometry) The lowest side of a in a triangle or other polygon, or the lowest face of a cone, pyramid or other polyhedron laid flat.
15. (heraldiccharge) The lowest third of a shield or escutcheon.
16. (heraldry) The lower part of the field. See escutcheon.
17. (mathematics) A number raised to the power of an exponent.

    The logarithm to base 2 of 8 is 3.

18. (mathematics) Synonym of radix#English|radix.
19. (topology) The set of sets from which a topology is generated.
20. (topology) A topological space, looked at in relation to one of its covering spaces, fibrations, or bundles.
21. (group theory) A sequence of elements not jointly stabilized by any nontrivial group element.
22. (acrobatics, cheerleading) In hand-to-hand balance, the person who supports the flyer; the person that remains in contact with the ground.
23. (linguistics) A morpheme (or morphemes) that serves as a basic foundation on which affixes can be attached.
24. (music) Dated form of bass#English|bass.

    • The trebles squeak for fear, the bases roar.

25. (military, historical) The smallest kind of cannon.
26. (archaic) The housing of a horse.
27. (historical, in the plural) A kind of skirt (often of velvet or brocade, but sometimes of mailed armour) which hung from the middle to about the knees, or lower.
28. (obsolete) The lower part of a robe or petticoat.
29. (obsolete) An apron.

    • bakers in their linen bases

30. 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.
31. (politics) A group of voters who almost always support a single party's candidates for elected office.
32. (Marxism) The forces and relations of production that produce the necessities and amenities of life.
33. A material that holds paint or other materials together; a binder.
34. (aviation) Short for base leg#English|base leg.

• (chemical compound that will neutralize an acid) alkali

• (chemical compound that will neutralize an alkali) acid
• (end of a leaf) apex

• French: base
• German: Basis, Grundlage
• Italian: basi, basamento, fondamenta
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: осно́ва
• Spanish: base

• French: base
• German: Basis, Grundlage
• Italian: base
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: старт

• French: base, caserne
• German: Kaserne, Basis, Stützpunkt
• Italian: base, caserma
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: ба́за
• Spanish: base

• German: Basis
• Italian: sede, quartier generale
• Portuguese: base, sede
• Russian: штаб
• Spanish: base, sede

• Italian: ingrediente, basilare

• Italian: mordente

• Italian: sottofondo

• French: base
• German: Base
• Italian: base, alcali
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: основа́ние
• Spanish: base

• Portuguese: pique

• French: base, but, coussin
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: ба́за
• Spanish: base

• Italian: base, zoccolo, basamento, piedistallo
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: осно́ва

• Russian: ба́за

• French: base
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: ба́за

• French: base
• German: Basis
• Italian: base
• Portuguese: base
• Russian: основа́ние

• French: champagne
• German: Schildfuß
• Italian: campagna
• Spanish: campaña

• French: champagne
• German: Schildfuß
• Italian: campagna
• Spanish: campaña

• Portuguese: base
• Russian: основа́ние
• Spanish: base

base (bases, present participle basing; past and past participle based)

1. (transitive) To give as its foundation or starting point; to lay the foundation of.
   • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, New York, N.Y.: Columbia University Press, →ISBN, page vii:

     Firstly, I continue to base most species treatments on personally collected material, rather than on herbarium plants.

2. (transitive) To be located (at a particular place).
3. (acrobatics, cheerleading) To act as a base#Noun|base; to be the person supporting the flyer.
   • 2005, John T. Warren, Laura B. Lengel, Casting Gender: Women and Performance in Intercultural Context, ISBN 0820474193, page 73:

     Apart from time taken out during radio- and chemotherapy, Maurs continued to participate in POW. She would base a flyer in a double balance and make the audience laugh with her clowning antics for two more shows.

• French: baser
• German: basieren
• Italian: basare, erigere, edificare
• Portuguese: basear-se em
• Spanish: basar

• Portuguese: basear-se em, ficar em

base (comparative baser, superlative basest)

1. (obsolete) Low in height; short.
2. Low in place or position.
3. (obsolete) Of low value or degree.
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, John Florio, transl., The Essayes, […], printed at London: By Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], OCLC 946730821 ↗:

     If thou livest in paine and sorrow, thy base courage is the cause of it, To die there wanteth but will.

4. (archaic) Of low social standing or rank; vulgar, common.
   • 1623, Francis Bacon, De Augmentis Scientiarum

     a peasant and base swain

5. Morally reprehensible, immoral; cowardly.
   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (humanist) (translator}, More's Utopia

     a cruel act of a base and a cowardish mind

   • 1634 October 9 (first performance)​, [John Milton], H[enry] Lawes, editor, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: Printed [by Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, OCLC 228715864 ↗; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, OCLC 1113942837 ↗:

     base ingratitude

6. (now, rare) Inferior; unworthy, of poor quality.
7. Designating those metals which are not classed as precious or noble.
8. Alloyed with inferior metal; debased.

   base coin

   base bullion

9. (obsolete) Of illegitimate birth; bastard.
10. Not classical or correct.

    base Latin

11. Obsolete form of bass#English|bass.

    the base tone of a violin

12. (legal) Not held by honourable service.

    A base estate is one held by services not honourable, or held by villenage. Such a tenure is called base, or low, and the tenant is a base tenant.

• (low, short) little, petite, short
• (of position) low-lying, lowland
• (of value) seeSynonyms en
• (vulgar, common) common, low-born, lowly, plebeian, vulgar
• (immoral) seeSynonyms en
• (of inferior quality) seeSynonyms en
• (describing metals)
• (of illegitimate birth) seeSynonyms en
• (not classical)
• (not held by honourable service)

• likeable
• desirable
• admirable
• noble

• French: bas, abject, indigne, ignoble
• Portuguese: baixo
• Spanish: bajo

• French: indigne, ignoble
• Portuguese: ruim

• Portuguese: baixo
• Spanish: rastrero

• Italian: plebaglia, volgo, popolino, plebe, plebeo, volgare, popolano

• Italian: basico

base (uncountable)

1. (now, chiefly, US, historical) The game of prisoners' bars. [from 15th c.]
   • 1611 April (first recorded performance)​, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act V, scene iii]:

     to run the country base

   • 1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, V.8:

     So ran they all, as they had bene at bace, / They being chased that did others chase.

1. Alternative form of BASE

1. Surname

1. Acronym of building, antenna-tower, span, earth