Wordul · all words

adjective · 2 syllables · /'beɪ.sɪk/

BASIC

What does "BASIC" mean?

Forming an essential foundation; fundamental and simple.

Meanings

  1. Forming the base or starting point; fundamental and essential. Clean water is a basic human need.
  2. Of the simplest or most elementary kind, without extras. We booked the basic room with no view.
  3. In chemistry, alkaline; having a pH greater than 7. Baking soda makes a solution slightly basic. technical
  4. Unoriginal or conventional to the point of being boring (slang). He called the playlist basic, all the same hits. informal

Did you know?

  • The BASIC programming language is an acronym: Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code, invented at Dartmouth in 1964 by John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz to let non-experts write programs.

Word origin

From 'base' (foundation), from Latin and Greek 'basis' (a stepping, foundation), plus the suffix '-ic'; the chemical sense pairs with 'acid' as its opposite.

Remember it

BASIC = BASE + IC: the adjective of 'base'. In chemistry it's the opposite of acid; remember 'basic' has no acid in it.

A little poem

Strip the room of frills-
what's left when the extras go
is what you stood on.

haiku

Wordplay

  • Someone called my chemistry pun basic. I told them at least it has a pH above seven.

What it teaches

What we dismiss as basic is usually what everything else is quietly standing on.

Quick facts

What does BASIC mean?

Forming an essential foundation; fundamental and simple.

Is BASIC a valid word?

Yes — BASIC is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.

How many letters is BASIC?

BASIC has 5 letters and 2 syllables.

Where does BASIC come from?

From 'base' (foundation), from Latin and Greek 'basis' (a stepping, foundation), plus the suffix '-ic'; the chemical sense pairs with 'acid' as its opposite.

What can BASIC teach us?

What we dismiss as basic is usually what everything else is quietly standing on.

How players do

Be the first to solve it.

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