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say it: bays
base is a noun, adjective and verb meaning "installation from which a military force initiates operations". It is pronounced /ˈbeɪs/ — bays. It carries 30 recorded senses.
installation from which a military force initiates operations
“the attack wiped out our forward bases”
military
lowest support of a structure
“it was built on a base of solid rock”
“he stood at the foot of the tower”
a place that the runner must touch before scoring
“he scrambled to get back to the bag”
(anatomy) the part of an organ nearest its point of attachment
“the base of the skull”
anatomy
a lower limit
“the government established a wage floor”
the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained
“the whole argument rested on a basis of conjecture”
a phosphoric ester of a nucleoside; the basic structural unit of nucleic acids (DNA or RNA)
the bottom side of a geometric figure from which the altitude can be constructed
“the base of the triangle”
a terrorist network intensely opposed to the United States that dispenses money and logistical support and training to a wide variety of radical Islamic terrorist groups; has cells in more than 50 countries
Afghanistan · Pakistan · terrorism
the stock of basic facilities and capital equipment needed for the functioning of a country or area
“the industrial base of Japan”
the principal ingredient of a mixture
“glycerinated gelatin is used as a base for many ointments”
“he told the painter that he wanted a yellow base with just a hint of green”
“everything she cooked seemed to have rice as the base”
(electronics) the part of a transistor that separates the emitter from the collector
electronics
(used of metals) consisting of or alloyed with inferior metal
“base coins of aluminum”
“a base metal”
having or showing an ignoble lack of honor or morality
“that liberal obedience without which your army would be a base rabble”
“taking a mean advantage”
“chok'd with ambition of the meaner sort”
“something essentially vulgar and meanspirited in politics”
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.
Definitions, synonyms and semantic relations for base come from Princeton University’s WordNet. The pronunciation comes from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. Commonness is measured against a corpus of everyday English. Full sources and licences.