basal

Other forms of basal

comparative

basaller·

superlative

basallest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about basal

What does basal mean?

basal means "especially of leaves; located at the base of a plant or stem; especially arising directly from the root or rootstock or a root-like stem". That is the primary sense; the word has 3 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in basal?

basal has 2 syllables: ba-sal. The stress falls on "ba". In IPA it is /ˈbeɪsəl/.

What is another word for basal?

Close synonyms include radical, elementary, elemental, primary, base. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is basal a common word?

basal is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.