basement

American  

[beys-muhnt] / ˈbeɪs mənt /

noun

• basements
  plural

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.

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basement British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• basements
  plural

Etymology

Origin of basement

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

Explanation

A basement is a room that's below ground level, underneath the first floor. You might have a laundry room with a washer and dryer in your basement. Some basements are partially under the level of the street, while others are completely below ground. Many, though not all, houses and larger buildings have basements. Some basements are "finished," with carpeting and solid ceilings and walls, but more often they're very basic rooms used for storage. The word dates from 1730, most likely from the Italian basamento, "column base."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

basement basements

Elsewhere, a steep flight of gloomily-lit stairs lead to the basement where Morck and his misfits are based – the abandoned shower quarter of the fictional police station which gives them the name Department Q.

From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026

Sleeping with 60 people in a damp basement that proves snoring is an international language.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 25, 2026

Over time, erosion along this immense rocky boundary removed huge amounts of material, eventually exposing ancient crystalline basement rocks that can now be seen in the Grand Canyon in southern Arizona.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 21, 2026

In the basement of St. Boniface Church in Anaheim on weekday afternoons and weekend mornings in the mid-1990s, my sister, about 20 other teenagers and I learned about the tenets of our faith.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 19, 2026

I follow her eyes to the corner of the basement where Andre is slumped beside a pile of laundry.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller

It ushered in a new kind of fun that was fresher, busier and airier than past listservs and chatrooms, the dank basements of internet interaction.

From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026

The city’s complaint included exhibits showing the dilapidated conditions of the homes—standing sewage in basements, black mold on walls, crumbling infrastructure—which it called harmful to the health and safety of the public.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

"Others tried to get their cars out of the building basements, fearing an aftershock might make things worse."

From BBC ● Jun. 25, 2026

When the alarms sound in the city, the two students no longer go to underground shelters, preferring a "good sleep" in the safety of basements.

From Barron's ● May 25, 2026

My sister and I would play in the parking lots outside the little doors to the basements of the abandoned buildings.

From "Everything Sad Is Untrue" by Daniel Nayeri

Related Words

• cellar
• storage
• vault