bedrock

[bed-rok]

noun

1. Geology.,  unbroken solid rock, overlaid in most places by soil or rock fragments.

2. bottom layer; lowest stratum.

3. any firm foundation or basis.

   Technical courses will be founded on a bedrock of sound, general education so as to produce a well-rounded engineer.

4. the fundamental principles, as of a teaching, belief, or science.

   Let's strip away the cant and get down to bedrock.

adjective

1. basic; fundamental.

bedrock

/ ˈbɛdˌrɒk /

noun

1. the solid unweathered rock that lies beneath the loose surface deposits of soil, alluvium, etc

2. basic principles or facts (esp in the phrase get down to bedrock )

3. the lowest point, level, or layer

bedrock

1. The solid rock that lies beneath the soil and other loose material on the Earth's surface.

Word History and Origins

Origin of bedrock¹

An Americanism dating back to 1840–50; bed + rock ¹

Example Sentences

Catholicism is the faith I was baptized in, the one I embraced as a teen and that’s the bedrock for my moral code of comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Hektoria Glacier had been positioned on an ice plain, a level expanse of bedrock located below sea level.

Read more on Science Daily

More than these particular tariffs are at stake: So is a bedrock principle of American governance.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

It’s the same thrill I get from a few bedrock recipes, the ones so deeply memorized they become launchpads for improvisation.

Read more on Salon

This extraordinary change, the authors say, could be thanks to an ice plain - a relatively flat area of bedrock on which the glacier lightly rests.

Read more on BBC