basement

nouncommon in dialogue

//ˈbeɪsmənt//

A floor of a building below ground level.

noun

1
A floor of a building below ground level.
Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.
2
A mass of igneous or metamorphic rock forming the foundation over which a platform of sedimentary rocks is laid.
3
informalLast place in a sports conference's standings.
4
Variant of semi-basementA floor of a building below ground level. Ellipsis of semi-basement, a floor mostly below grade

Etymology

Etymology tree English base Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥ Proto-Indo-European *-mn̥tom Proto-Italic *-mentom Latin -mentum Old French -mentbor. Middle English -ment English -ment English basement From base + -ment.

Forms

plural: basements

Base · A surname transferred from the nickname.baseball · A sport common in North America, the Caribbean, and East…based · Founded on; having a basis; often used in combining forms.

basement · A floor of a building below ground level.

bash · To strike heavily; to beat.Bash · The Free Software Foundation's command interpreter (the…basic · Necessary, essential for life or some process.

The neighbouring pages — Alphabetical order follows the rules of the language, not byte values: an accent decides only between two otherwise identical words, and Spanish files Ñ as a letter of its own.