basement

[ beys-muhnt ]

noun

1. a story of a building, partly or wholly underground.
2. (in classical and Renaissance architecture) the portion of a building beneath the principal story, treated as a single compositional unit.
3. the lowermost portion of a structure.
4. the substructure of a columnar or arched construction.

basement

/ ˈbeɪsmənt /

noun

1. 1. a partly or wholly underground storey of a building, esp the one immediately below the main floor Compare cellar
   2. ( as modifier )

      a basement flat

2. the foundation or substructure of a wall or building
3. geology a part of the earth's crust formed of hard igneous or metamorphic rock that lies beneath the cover of soft sedimentary rock, sediment, and soil

Word History and Origins

Origin of basement¹

First recorded in 1720–30; base ¹ + -ment

Example Sentences

All of which results in the women being forced into the inevitable basement/pit beloved of horror movies.

From Los Angeles Times

It’s impossible for anyone to tell which surveys of public opinion are governed by rigorous methodology and which are conjured up by some hyper-partisan mini-Oz, tweeting from the proverbial basement.

From Salon

She also tries to comfort him by saying that he still holds onto some sense of moral superiority because she was going to kill them all in her basement on day one, as she had done countless times to countless witches before.

From Salon

Agatha’s mental wall dropping and letting Billy in proves she has made great strides to being more than just the nosy neighbor with a rune-laden cave in her basement.

From Salon

Or we're subjected to wildly distorted tapes of Harris laughing as if she's a horror movie villain about to torture us in a basement.

From Salon

Related Words

• cellar
• storage
• vault