bare bones

1. 1.

   (plural) the most basic facts or elements

   “he told us only the bare bones of the story”

   Broaderkernel

   plural · colloquialism

Questions about bare bones

What does bare bones mean?

bare bones means "(plural) the most basic facts or elements".

Is bare bones a common word?

bare bones is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.