Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Of, relating to, or forming a base; fundamental.
  • adjective Of, being, or serving as a starting point or basis.
  • adjective Of or relating to a base.
  • adjective Containing a base, especially in excess of acid.
  • adjective Alkaline.
  • adjective Geology Containing little silica, as certain igneous rocks.
  • noun An essential, fundamental element or entity.
  • noun Basic training.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Relating to a base; of the nature of a base; fundamental.
  • In chem.: Performing the office of a base in a salt. Having the base in excess; having more than one equivalent of the base for each equivalent of acid.
  • In geology, containing a relatively small amount of silica: applied to crystalline rocks, as basalt: opposed to acidic.
  • In anatomy, basal; basilar.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Computers) an artificial computer language with a relatively simplified instruction set.
  • adjective Relating to a base; performing the office of a base in a salt.
  • adjective Having the base in excess, or the amount of the base atomically greater than that of the acid, or exceeding in proportion that of the related neutral salt.
  • adjective Apparently alkaline, as certain normal salts which exhibit alkaline reactions with test paper.
  • adjective (Min.) Said of crystalline rocks which contain a relatively low percentage of silica, as basalt.
  • adjective (Chem.) a salt formed from a base or hydroxide by the partial replacement of its hydrogen by a negative or acid element or radical.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective necessary, essential for life or some process.
  • adjective elementary, simple, fundamental, merely functional.
  • adjective chemistry Of or pertaining to a base; antonym of acidic
  • noun A necessary commodity, a staple requirement.
  • noun An elementary building block, e.g. a fundamental piece of knowledge.
  • noun military basic training.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality
  • adjective serving as a base or starting point
  • adjective pertaining to or constituting a base or basis
  • adjective of or denoting or of the nature of or containing a base
  • noun (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is constant
  • noun a popular programming language that is relatively easy to learn; an acronym for beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code; no longer in general use

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

base +‎ -ic

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Examples

  • Nathaniel Kleitman gave the name "basic rest activity cycle" to the 90-minute period at night during which we move through the five stages of sleep.

    NYT > Home Page By TONY SCHWARTZ 2011

  • But at the end of the day, if you can't get there for what we term basic services, which is education, health care and corrections, then what option is there?

    Las Vegas Sun Stories: All Sun Headlines 2009

  • Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.

    N.Y. legalizes gay marriage 2011

  • Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.

    N.Y. legalizes gay marriage 2011

  • Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.

    N.Y. legalizes gay marriage 2011

  • It was what she calls her "basic venality" and desire to eat more decadently that led her through a succession of baroque fungus forays and conferences in search of satisfaction.

    What's Magic About Mushrooms Richard Mabey 2011

  • Grisanti said he could not deny anyone what he called basic rights.

    N.Y. legalizes gay marriage 2011

  • So that families are spending a lot more on what you describe as the basic nut.

    Follow the money . . . Edstock 2009

  • I was shocked when I became shadow minister to find that the percentage of our education aid that was going to what we call basic education, which is mainly primary education, had fallen.

    Reprioritising Education in the Aid Program 2008

  • He returned H-P to what he calls the basic "blocking and tackling" of getting products out on time, improving quality and service, and increasing profit margins.

    The Un-Carly 2007

Comments

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  • the new insult. Also, see the tweets in the examples.

    http://bit.ly/1lHtekL (link to vox.com article)

    also in the article normcore ratchet

    April 24, 2014