basement

English

Etymology

base +‎ -ment.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈbeɪsmənt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪsmənt
• Hyphenation: base‧ment

Noun

basement (plural basements)

1. A floor of a building below ground level.
   • 1914, Louis Joseph Vance, Nobody, chapter III:

     Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

2. (geology) A mass of igneous or metamorphic rock forming the foundation over which a platform of sedimentary rocks is laid.
3. (sports, informal) Last place in a sports conference standings.

Derived terms

Terms derived from basement

• bargain basement
• basement battler

• basementless
• basementlike

• basement membrane
• subbasement

Translations

floor below ground level

• Albanian: bodrum (sq), qilar (sq) m
• Arabic: قَبُو‎ m (qabū), سِرْدَاب‎ m (sirdāb), بَدْرُوم‎ m (badrūm), بَدْرُون‎ m (badrūn)

  Egyptian Arabic: بدرون‎ m (badrawn)

  Hijazi Arabic: قَبو‎ m (gabu), بدروم‎ m (badrōm)

• Armenian: նկուղ (hy) (nkuł)
• Azeri: zirzəmi
• Basque: soto
• Bulgarian: сутере́н (bg) m (suterén)
• Catalan: soterrani m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 地牢 (dei⁶ lou⁴)

  Mandarin: 地下室 (zh) (dìxiàshì)

• Czech: suterén m
• Danish: kælder (da)
• Dutch: kelder (nl) m
• Faroese: kjallari m
• Finnish: kellarikerros (fi)
• French: sous-sol (fr) m, cave (fr) f
• Georgian: სარდაფი (sardapi), სარდაფის სართული (sardapis sartuli), მიწისქვეშა სართული (mic̣iskveša sartuli), შენობის საძირკველი (šenobis saʒirḳveli), შენობის ფუნდამენტი (šenobis pundamenṭi)
• German: Keller (de) m, Untergeschoss (de) n
• Greek: υπόγειο (el) n (ypógeio)
• Gujarati: ભોંયરું m (bhōnyaruṁ)
• Hebrew: מרתף‎ (he) m (martef)
• Hungarian: alagsor (hu)
• Icelandic: kjallari m
• Ido: basamento (io)
• Indonesian: bawah tanah
• Irish: íoslach m
• Italian: scantinato (it) m
• Japanese: 地下室 (ちかしつ, chikashitsu)

• Javanese: ngisor
• Korean: 지하실 (ko) (jihasil) (地下室 (ko))
• Kurdish:

  Kurmanji: jêrzemîn (ku), bodrûm

  Sorani: ژێرزەوی‎ (zêrzewî)

• Latin: basis (la) m
• Latvian: pagrabs m
• Macedonian: подрум m (podrum), сутерен m (suteren)
• Malay: bawah tanah
• Maltese: kantina m
• Ngazidja Comorian: fidji
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kjeller (no) m

  Nynorsk: kjellar m

• Persian: زیرزمین‎ (fa) (zirzamin), سردابه‎ (fa) (sardâbe), سرداب‎ (fa) (sardâb)
• Polish: piwnica (pl) f
• Portuguese: porão (pt) m
• Romanian: subsol (ro) m
• Russian: подва́л (ru) m (podvál) (second basement or below), цо́кольный эта́ж (ru) m (cókolʹnyj etáž) (first basement, lower ground floor, literally "ground floor"), подва́льный эта́ж m (podválʹnyj etáž) (second basement or below)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: подрум m

  Roman: podrum (sh) m

• Slovak: suterén m
• Spanish: sótano (es) m
• Swedish: källare (sv) c
• Tagalog: silong
• Turkish: bodrum (tr)
• Vietnamese: tầng hầm
• Welsh: islawr m, baslawr m

Anagrams

• absement, beatsmen