fundamental
noun · adjective
Simple meaning
A collection of essential component ideas that are often grouped together to serve as the foundational basis of a complex idea.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
fuhnduhmehntuhlSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
fəndəˈmɛntəl
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.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
genericsingular
A basic truth, elementary concept, principle, rule, or law. An individual fundamental will often serve as a building block used to form a complex idea.
genericplural
A collection of essential component ideas that are often grouped together to serve as the foundational basis of a complex idea.
adjective
Essential; extremely important.
Related to a foundation, base, or basis; serving as a foundation.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- A2 · Elementary (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- Everyday English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: (generic, singular) A basic truth, elementary concept, principle, rule, or law. An individual fundamental will often serve as a building block used to form a complex idea.
Used this way, fundamental is a specialist word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. This is a legal use: the wording is institutional and carries a defined meaning in law rather than a loose everyday one.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Specialist/technical
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Specialized
- Connotation
- Clinical and technical
- Usage feel
- Technical and specialized
Where it naturally appears
- Law/legal
- Government/politics
- Academic writing
- Ethics/values
Usage note
In general conversation this sense usually needs explaining — outside its field, people reach for a plainer word.
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use fundamental
- “Fundamentals include a company's growth, revenues, earnings, management, and capital structure.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Other combinations
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Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Inflected forms
Grammatical variations of the same word.
Principles from which other truths can be derived.
Compound terms
Established multiword terms.
A particle that is less complex than an atom.
Principles from which other truths can be derived.
One of the four quantities that are the basis of systems of measurement.
The use of fundamentals as an investment strategy.
The lowest tone of a harmonic series.
The transfer of energy between elementary particles or between an elementary particle and a field or between fields.
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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.