noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of bassist
Explanation
If you're a musician who plays a low-pitched instrument, especially a double bass or a bass guitar, you're a bassist. All bassists play instruments with deep, low tones, and the word derives from a Latin root meaning "low." In a rock band, the bassist usually plays a bass guitar, and along with the drummer, provides the rhythm that forms a song's foundation. The bassist also plays notes that harmonize with the rest of the band's instruments, such as other guitars and keyboards. Classical and jazz bassists do something similar, but they usually play the double bass, the largest instrument of the violin family: It's so big that it is stood upright on the floor while the bassist stands or sits on a high stool to play it.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The band, which now consists of Gibbons, bassist Elwood Francis and touring drummer Michael Monahan, has canceled dates in Salt Lake City and Colorado Springs after Beard's passing.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
ZZ top lead vocalist Billy Gibbons, bassist Dusty Hill and drummer Frank Beard in 2009.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
Epic, which had rejected the earlier demo, signed Messrs. Scholz and Delp, and former Mother’s Milk guitarist Barry Goudreau was brought in along with bassist Fran Sheehan and drummer Sib Hashian.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 15, 2026
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist and prolific property investor Flea has brought his “extraordinary” Malibu sanctuary back to the market for $7.99 million inside one of California’s most exclusive beachfront enclaves.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 11, 2026
Turns out I will not become a bassist today.
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
But rock-band bassists were in short supply, so I fooled around on the bass.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
“So the trumpets would come one day, the reeds the next. The drummers and the bassists would be there a third day.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2024
For fellow rock bassists, Rourke’s playing remains aspirational, a core part of one of the era’s most beloved bands.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 19, 2023
Low, which was essentially the couple with a series of bassists over the years, released its first album, “I Could Live in Hope,” in 1994.
From New York Times ● Nov. 11, 2022
And bassists are tall and skinny, like me.
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
