basement

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A floor of a building below ground level.

   Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

2. 2
   noun

   the lowermost portion of a structure partly or wholly below ground level

3. 3
   noun

   the ground floor facade or interior in Renaissance architecture

4. 4
   noun

   A mass of igneous or metamorphic rock forming the foundation over which a platform of sedimentary rocks is laid.

5. 5
   noun

   Last place in a sports conference's standings.

Etymology

From base + -ment.