baseline

[beys-lahyn]

noun

1. Baseball.,  the area between bases base bases basis within which a base runner must keep when running from one base bases to another.

2. Tennis.,  the line at each end of a tennis court, parallel to the net, that marks the in-bounds limit of play.

3. (in perspective drawing) a horizontal line in the immediate foreground formed by the intersection of the ground plane and the picture plane.

4. a basic standard or level; guideline.

   to establish a baseline for future studies.

5. a specific value or values that can serve as a comparison or control.

6. Typography.,  the imaginary line on which the bottoms of primary letters align.

7. Surveying.,  triangulation1

8. Electronics.,  a horizontal or vertical line formed on the face of a cathode-ray tube by the sweep of the scanning dot.

9. Naval Architecture.,  a line on the body plan or sheer plan of a hull, representing a horizontal reference plane for vertical dimensions.

adjective

1. basic or essential.

baseline

/ ˈbeɪsˌlaɪn /

noun

1. surveying a measured line through a survey area from which triangulations are made

2. an imaginary line, standard of value, etc, by which things are measured or compared

3. a line at each end of a tennis court that marks the limit of play

Word History and Origins

Origin of baseline¹

First recorded in 1740–50; base ¹ + line ¹

Example Sentences

Valneva said that antibody levels remained well above baseline across all six Lyme disease serotypes and all age groups in the trial.

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The results also show for the first time that baseline cardiorespiratory fitness does not change how the body responds to flavanol intake.

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That means “you can always re-evaluate how much money you need as your baseline — what you need to be happy — or whether money makes you happy at all.”

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‘You can always re-evaluate how much money you need as your baseline — what you need to be happy — or whether money makes you happy at all.’

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“This is the new baseline normal,” said Jason Hsu, a former Taiwan lawmaker and now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, a Washington think tank.

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Related Words

• control 
• criterion 
• guideline 
• measure 
• standard