First recorded in 1925–30
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
All that Basic English could produce," reported Lockhart, "was 'blood, body water, and eyewash.'
From Time Magazine Archive
Richards is convinced that English is becoming the world's language; the only issue is whether it will be Basic English or broken English.
From Time Magazine Archive
By cutting and simplifying Plato's far-from-Basic Greek, the Dialogues have been brought over into something very like Basic English.
From Time Magazine Archive
In his spare time Littlewood prepared a primer based on the study of Russian, Latin, Greek, French, Welsh, Arabic and Basic English.
From Time Magazine Archive
You say the letter accompanying the first deposit, the one in Basic English, was apparently taken away by Kettle-Belly Sam Bonney.
From Lone Star Planet by H. Beam Piper
The training included technical language training, as the usual basic English level was insufficient, he said.
From Reuters ● Aug. 19, 2023
A sandy road leads to Merino’s small cement-floor home, where one wall displays a framed certificate showing that his son passed his basic English studies.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 4, 2022
Cesar could still not speak English - "I used to carry a little dictionary in my pocket," he says - and so began a basic English course at Ambassador House in Thornton Heath.
From BBC ● Aug. 23, 2021
The national railways have trained staff on the importance of smiling to foreign customers, and metro police have been schooled in basic English phrases.
From Los Angeles Times
NM: Word list of basic English, updating of all tables & census material. © 12Sep44; A182825.
From U.S. Copyright Renewals, 1971 July - December by Library of Congress. Copyright Office
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.
