basement

noun

BAYS-muhnt/ˈbeɪsmənt/

Pluralbasements

4 meanings of basement

1
nouncountable
A room or floor in a building that is below the ground.
Like a room built underground, beneath the rest of the house.
They turned the basement into a playroom for the kids.
Water leaked into the basement after the heavy rain.
Similarcellar
Note
2
nouncolloquial
The lowest place in a sports league's rankings, where the worst team sits.
Like being at the very bottom of a list, with everyone else above you.
Their team spent the whole season stuck in the basement.
A few bad losses dropped the club into the basement.
Similarcellar, bottom
Oppositetop
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3
noun
A layer of hard, old rock that lies under the softer rock nearer the surface.
Like the strong stone floor under a thick pile of softer layers.
Drillers hit solid basement far below the layers of sandstone.
The hard basement beneath the valley formed long before the rock above it.
Note
4
nounabbreviationellipsis
Short form of semi-basement. It means a floor that is mostly, but not fully, below the ground.
Their basement has windows at street level that let in daylight.
We rented a basement that sits half above the ground.
Note

Practice

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Origin

From the word "base" plus the ending "-ment."