[beɪs], (Noun)

Definitions:
- the lowest part or edge of something, especially the part on which it rests or is supported
(e.g: she sat down at the base of a tree)

- a conceptual structure or entity on which something draws or depends
(e.g: the town's economic base collapsed)

- a place used as a centre of operations by the armed forces or others; a headquarters
(e.g: he headed back to base)

- a main or important element or ingredient to which other things are added
(e.g: soaps with a vegetable oil base)

- a substance capable of reacting with an acid to form a salt and water, or (more broadly) of accepting or neutralizing hydrogen ions

- the middle part of a bipolar transistor, separating the emitter from the collector

- the root or stem of a word or a derivative

- a number used as the basis of a numeration scale

- each of the four stations that must be reached in turn to score a run


Phrases:
- off base
- touch base

Origin:
Middle English: from Old French, from Latin basis ‘base, pedestal’, from Greek

[beɪs], (Verb)

Definitions:
- use (something specified) as the foundation or starting point for something
(e.g: the film is based on a novel by Pat Conroy)

- situate at a specified place as the centre of operations
(e.g: the Science Policy Review Unit is based at the University of Sussex)


Phrases:
- off base
- touch base

Origin:
Middle English: from Old French, from Latin basis ‘base, pedestal’, from Greek

[beɪs], (Adjective)

Definitions:
- without moral principles; ignoble
(e.g: the electorate's baser instincts of greed and selfishness)

- denoting or befitting a person of low social class

- (of coins or other articles) not made of precious metal
(e.g: the basest coins in the purse were made in the 620s AD)


Phrases:

Origin:
late Middle English: from Old French bas, from medieval Latin bassus ‘short’ (found in classical Latin as a cognomen). Early senses included ‘low, short’ and ‘of inferior quality’; from the latter arose a sense ‘low in the social scale’, and hence (mid 16th century) ‘reprehensibly cowardly, selfish, or mean’