Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
adj
Necessary, essential for life or some process.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: indispensable, needed, basic, essential, necessar, necessary, prerequisite, required, requisite
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Elementary, simple, fundamental, merely functional.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: no-frills, spartan, austere, bare, bare-bones, bargain, basic, cheap, default, discreet, economy, elemental, elementary, essential, foundational, fundamental, incomplex, light, modest, plain, pure, restrained, rudimentary, run-of-the-mill, simple, slimline, standard, stripped down, stripped, uncomplicated, unembellished, uninvolved, unmodified, unvarnished, vanilla
Antonyms: none provided
adj
Of or pertaining to a base; having a pH greater than 7.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: chemistry, natural-sciences, physical-sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: alkaline
Antonyms: acidic
adj
Unremarkable or uninteresting; boring; uncool.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: informal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: dull, tedious, bog-standard, ordinary, banal, basic, beat, blah, commonplace, bland, boring, cold, colourless, corny, drab, stuffy, dreich, drowsy, dull as dishwater, flat, heavy going, ho-hum, humdrum, insipid, lackluster, lame, languid, lifeless, longsome, monotonous, mundane, no fun at parties, plain, plodding, prosaic, prosy, pedantic, pedestrian, static, straightforward, snoozeworthy, soporific, uncool, wan, weaksauce, wooden, uninteresting, stodgy, vapid, vanilla, average, medial, common, common-and-garden, common-or-garden, congruent, consistent, conventional, customary, everyday, expected, garden variety, improminent, natural, normal, par for the course, par, plain vanilla, quotidian, regular, routine, run-of-the-mill, standard, standard issue, typical, unexceptional, unremarkable, unstrange, usual, vulgar, wakeaday, workaday
Antonyms: none provided
name
Any of a family of third-generation programming languages.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Initialism of Brazil, South Africa, India and China.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, attributive, initialism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
Initialism of British American Security Information Council.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
name
A family of third-generation computer programming languages (c.1964 on).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
A necessary commodity, a staple requirement.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An elementary building block, e.g. a fundamental piece of knowledge.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Basic training.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: government, military, politics, war
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective
pertaining to or constituting a base or basis
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: incidental
adjective satellite
of or denoting or of the nature of or containing a base
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
serving as a base or starting point
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: introductory
Antonyms: none provided
adjective satellite
reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Synonyms: canonic, canonical
Antonyms: none provided
noun
(usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is constant
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: staple
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: commodity, trade good, good
noun
a popular programming language that is relatively easy to learn; an acronym for beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code; no longer in general use
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: programming language, programing language
History
From base + -ic.
Acronym for Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, but designed to spell out basic (i.e. simplistic). First use appears c. 1964 in the BASIC Instruction Manual.
An initialism of Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code.
Across languages
160 source translations are retained for this English entry.
