Baseness

base ¹  (bs)

n.

1. The lowest or bottom part: the base of a cliff; the base of a lamp.

2. Biology

a. The part of a plant or animal organ that is nearest to its point of attachment.

b. The point of attachment of such an organ.

3.

a. A supporting part or layer; a foundation: a skyscraper built on a base of solid rock.

b. A basic or underlying element; infrastructure: the nation's industrial base.

4. The fundamental principle or underlying concept of a system or theory; a basis.

5. A fundamental ingredient; a chief constituent: a paint with an oil base.

6. The fact, observation, or premise from which a reasoning process is begun.

7.

a. Games A starting point, safety area, or goal.

b. Baseball Any one of the four corners of an infield, marked by a bag or plate, that must be touched by a runner before a run can be scored.

8. A center of organization, supply, or activity; a headquarters.

9.

a. A fortified center of operations.

b. A supply center for a large force of military personnel.

10. A facial cosmetic used to even out the complexion or provide a surface for other makeup; a foundation.

11. Architecture The lowest part of a structure, such as a wall, considered as a separate unit: the base of a column.

12. Heraldry The lower part of a shield.

13. Linguistics A morpheme or morphemes regarded as a form to which affixes or other bases may be added.

14. Mathematics

a. The side or face of a geometric figure to which an altitude is or is thought to be drawn.

b. The number that is raised to various powers to generate the principal counting units of a number system. The base of the decimal system, for example, is 10.

c. The number raised to the logarithm of a designated number in order to produce that designated number; the number at which a chosen logarithmic scale has the value 1.

15. A line used as a reference for measurement or computations.

16. Chemistry

a. Any of a class of compounds whose aqueous solutions are characterized by a bitter taste, a slippery feel, the ability to turn litmus blue, and the ability to react with acids to form salts.

b. A substance that yields hydroxyl ions when dissolved in water.

c. A substance that can act as a proton acceptor.

d. A substance that can donate a pair of electrons to form a covalent bond.

17. Electronics

a. The region in a transistor between the emitter and the collector.

b. The electrode attached to this region.

18. One of the nitrogen-containing purines (adenine and guanine) or pyrimidines (cytosine, thymine, and uracil) that occurs attached to the sugar component of DNA or RNA.

adj.

1. Forming or serving as a base: a base layer of soil.

2. Situated at or near the base or bottom: a base camp for the mountain climbers.

3. Chemistry Of, relating to, or containing a base.

tr.v. based, bas·ing, bas·es

1. To form or provide a base for: based the new company in Portland.

2. To find a basis for; establish: based her conclusions on the report; a film based on a best-selling novel.

3. To assign to a base; station: troops based in the Middle East.

Idiom:

off base

Badly mistaken.

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[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin basis, from Greek; see g^w- in Indo-European roots.]

Synonyms: base¹, basis, foundation, ground¹, groundwork
These nouns all pertain to what underlies and supports. Base is applied chiefly to material objects: the wide base of the pyramid.
Basis is used in a nonphysical sense: "Healthy scepticism is the basis of all accurate observation" Arthur Conan Doyle.
Foundation often stresses firmness of support for something of relative magnitude: "Our flagrant disregard for the law attacks the foundation of this society" Peter D. Relic.
Ground is used figuratively in the plural to mean a justifiable reason: grounds for divorce.
Groundwork usually has the sense of a necessary preliminary: "It [the Universal Declaration of Human Rights] has laid the groundwork for the world's war crimes tribunals" Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Thesaurus

Noun

1.

baseness - unworthiness by virtue of lacking higher values contemptibility, despicability, despicableness, sordidness unworthiness - the quality or state of lacking merit or value