basic

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

A necessary commodity for which demand is constant.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

baysik

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US device voice

IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈbeɪsɪk

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

usually in the plural
A necessary commodity for which demand is constant
A necessary commodity, a staple requirement.
An elementary building block, e.g. a fundamental piece of knowledge.
attributive
A large Portuguese-speaking country in South America. Official name: Federative Republic of Brazil. Capital: Brasília.

adjective

Elementary, simple, fundamental, merely functional.
Necessary, essential for life or some process.
informal
Unremarkable or uninteresting; boring; uncool.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty: A1 · Beginner (estimated)
Frequency: Very Common
Typical Use: Everyday English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: A necessary commodity for which demand is constant

Used this way, basic is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone: Neutral
Formality: Neutral
Intensity: Not strongly marked
How common: Moderately common
Connotation: Matter-of-fact
Usage feel: Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use basic

“Learning the basic rules of the game is essential before playing.”adjective

Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

basic researchbasic principlebasic lawbasic educationtwo basicthree basicsome basicbasic idea

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Inflected forms

Grammatical variations of the same word.

basicsnounPlural form
A statement of fundamental facts or principles.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

basicallyadverbDerived adverb
In essence.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

basic colornounCompound term
A dye that is considered to be a base because the chromophore is part of a positive ion.
basic colournounCompound term
A dye that is considered to be a base because the chromophore is part of a positive ion.
basic dyenounCompound term
A dye that is considered to be a base because the chromophore is part of a positive ion.
basic englishnounCompound term
A simplified form of English proposed for use as an auxiliary language for international communication.
basic ironnounCompound term
Pig iron containing a high percentage of phosphorus.
basic point defense missile systemnounCompound term
A shipboard missile system.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: elementary or simple or fundamental or merely functional

basalTechnicalunderlyingelementaryabecedarianRareprimaryradical

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.