base rate

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noun

the rate of pay per unit of time, as by the hour, or per piece, or for work performed at an established standard rate.

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Also called basic rate.

Origin of base rate

First recorded in 1920–25

Words nearby base rate

base path, base pay, base period, baseplate, base price, base rate, base rate fallacy, base runner, bases, Basescu, base speed

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use base rate in a sentence

Historically the reelection rate for members of Congress is in the area of 95 percent.
The Unbearable Whiteness of Congress|Dean Obeidallah|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
Paperback publishers distributed their titles in African-American neighborhoods because it expanded their market base.
How Pulp Fiction Saved Literature|Wendy Smith|January 8, 2015|DAILY BEAST
With a mortality rate of 70 percent, the more cases that arise, the deadlier this epidemic becomes.
The Race for the Ebola Vaccine|Abby Haglage|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST
If ISIS “came into a base and killed hundreds of troops, then people would ask a lot more questions.”
Pentagon Doesn’t Know How Many People It’s Killed in the ISIS War|Nancy A. Youssef|January 7, 2015|DAILY BEAST

The accident rate in Asia has marred what was in 2014 a banner year for aviation safety.
Annoying Airport Delays Might Prevent You From Becoming the Next AirAsia 8501|Clive Irving|January 6, 2015|DAILY BEAST
The upper part of the stem is usually unbranched, but whorls of branches occur towards the base.
How to Know the Ferns|S. Leonard Bastin
In future years the poor-rate (so-called) will include, in addition to these, all other rates levyable by the Corporation.
Showell's Dictionary of Birmingham|Thomas T. Harman and Walter Showell
It is a vile world because it is an under-educated world, unreasonable, suspicious, base and ferocious.
The Salvaging Of Civilisation|H. G. (Herbert George) Wells
At any rate his stirring advice and the dispatches he brought roused the military authorities at Meerut into activity.
The Red Year|Louis Tracy
If we turn again in a new direction, it will at any rate not be in the direction of a return to autocratic mediævalism.
The Unsolved Riddle of Social Justice|Stephen Leacock

British Dictionary definitions for base rate

base rate

noun

British the rate of interest used by individual commercial banks as a basis for their lending rates

British informal the rate at which the Bank of England lends to the discount houses, which effectively controls the interest rates charged throughout the banking system

statistics the average number of times an event occurs divided by the average number of times on which it might occur

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012