Basement

How to spell basement

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce basement

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does basement mean?

1. nounThe lowest storey of a building, partly or wholly below ground level.

Basement in a sentence

• They converted the damp basement into a home gym.

• The office archives are stored in the basement beneath the lobby.

Where does basement come from?

Language of origin: French

This word is built from 'base', meaning the lowest or supporting part of something, which entered English in the 1300s from Old French 'bas' and ultimately from the Latin 'basis', a word borrowed from Greek meaning 'a stepping' or 'a foundation' on which something stands. To that English 'base' was added the productive suffix '-ment', which forms nouns naming a result or condition; the same suffix sits inside 'pavement' and 'settlement'. The combined form 'basement' appears in English from the late 1700s, originally an architectural term for the lowest storey of a building, the part nearest the ground or set into it. The spelling is reassuringly logical: it is simply 'base' with its silent final 'e' retained before '-ment', so the trap is mainly remembering that the 'e' survives and the word is not written 'basment'.

How the word is built

• base (lowest part, from Latin basis: foundation)
• -ment (noun-forming suffix)