Definitions for basic
ˈbeɪ sɪkba·sic

Princeton's WordNet(2.60 / 5 votes)Rate this definition:

1. BASICnoun

   a popular programming language that is relatively easy to learn; an acronym for beginner's all-purpose symbolic instruction code; no longer in general use

2. basic, stapleadjective

   (usually plural) a necessary commodity for which demand is constant

3. basicadjective

   pertaining to or constituting a base or basis

   "a basic fact"; "the basic ingredients"; "basic changes in public opinion occur because of changes in priorities"

4. basic, canonic, canonicaladjective

   reduced to the simplest and most significant form possible without loss of generality

   "a basic story line"; "a canonical syllable pattern"

5. basic, introductoryadjective

   serving as a base or starting point

   "a basic course in Russian"; "basic training for raw recruits"; "a set of basic tools"; "an introductory art course"

6. basicadjective

   of or denoting or of the nature of or containing a base

Wiktionary(4.33 / 3 votes)Rate this definition:

1. basicnoun

   A necessary commodity, a staple requirement.

   Rice is a basic for many Asian villagers.

2. basicnoun

   An elementary building block, e.g. a fundamental piece of knowledge.

   Arithmetic is a basic for the study of mathematics.

3. basicnoun

   basic training.

4. basicadjective

   necessary, essential for life or some process.

   Flour is a basic ingredient of bread.

5. basicadjective

   elementary, simple, fundamental, merely functional.

   The Hotel Sparta's accommodation is purely basic.

6. basicadjective

   Of or pertaining to a base; antonym of acidic

7. BASICnoun

   A family of third-generation programming languages (c.1964 on).

   Many programs were written for the Sinclair Spectrum computer in BASIC.

8. Basicnoun

   A family of third-generation computer programming languages (c.1964 on).

   Many programs were written for the Sinclair Spectrum computer in BASIC.

9. Etymology: Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code

Wikipedia(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. BASIC

   BASIC (Beginners' All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages designed for ease of use. The original version was created by John G. Kemeny and Thomas E. Kurtz at Dartmouth College in 1963. They wanted to enable students in non-scientific fields to use computers. At the time, nearly all computers required writing custom software, which only scientists and mathematicians tended to learn. In addition to the program language, Kemeny and Kurtz developed the Dartmouth Time Sharing System (DTSS), which allowed multiple users to edit and run BASIC programs simultaneously on remote terminals. This general model became very popular on minicomputer systems like the PDP-11 and Data General Nova in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Hewlett-Packard produced an entire computer line for this method of operation, introducing the HP2000 series in the late 1960s and continuing sales into the 1980s. Many early video games trace their history to one of these versions of BASIC. The emergence of microcomputers in the mid-1970s led to the development of multiple BASIC dialects, including Microsoft BASIC in 1975. Due to the tiny main memory available on these machines, often 4 KB, a variety of Tiny BASIC dialects were also created. BASIC was available for almost any system of the era, and became the de facto programming language for home computer systems that emerged in the late 1970s. These PCs almost always had a BASIC interpreter installed by default, often in the machine's firmware or sometimes on a ROM cartridge. BASIC declined in popularity in the 1990s, as more powerful microcomputers came to market and programming languages with advanced features (such as Pascal and C) became tenable on such computers. In 1991, Microsoft released Visual Basic, combining an updated version of BASIC with a visual forms builder. This reignited use of the language and "VB" remains a major programming language in the forms of VBA and VB.NET.

Webster Dictionary(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Basicadjective

   relating to a base; performing the office of a base in a salt

2. Basicadjective

   having the base in excess, or the amount of the base atomically greater than that of the acid, or exceeding in proportion that of the related neutral salt

3. Basicadjective

   apparently alkaline, as certain normal salts which exhibit alkaline reactions with test paper

4. Basicadjective

   said of crystalline rocks which contain a relatively low percentage of silica, as basalt

Freebase(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. BASIC

   BASIC is a family of general-purpose, high-level programming languages whose design philosophy emphasizes ease of use; the name is an acronym from Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. The original Dartmouth BASIC was designed in 1964 by John George Kemeny and Thomas Eugene Kurtz at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, USA to provide computer access to non-science students. At the time, nearly all use of computers required writing custom software, which was something only scientists and mathematicians tended to do. The language and its variants became widespread on microcomputers in the late 1970s and 1980s, when it was typically a standard feature, and often part of the firmware of the machine. The presence of an easy-to-learn language such as BASIC on these early personal computers allowed small business owners to develop their own custom application software, leading to widespread use of these computers in businesses that previously did not have access to computing technology. BASIC remains popular in numerous dialects and new languages influenced by BASIC such as Microsoft Visual Basic. In 2006, 59% of developers for the .NET Framework used Visual Basic .NET as their only programming language.

The New Hacker's Dictionary(5.00 / 1 vote)Rate this definition:

1. BASIC

   A programming language, originally designed for Dartmouth's experimental timesharing system in the early 1960s, which for many years was the leading cause of brain damage in proto-hackers. Edsger W. Dijkstra observed in Selected Writings on Computing: A Personal Perspective that “It is practically impossible to teach good programming style to students that have had prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration.” This is another case (like Pascal) of the cascading lossage that happens when a language deliberately designed as an educational toy gets taken too seriously. A novice can write short BASIC programs (on the order of 10-20 lines) very easily; writing anything longer (a) is very painful, and (b) encourages bad habits that will make it harder to use more powerful languages well. This wouldn't be so bad if historical accidents hadn't made BASIC so common on low-end micros in the 1980s. As it is, it probably ruined tens of thousands of potential wizards.[1995: Some languages called “BASIC” aren't quite this nasty any more, having acquired Pascal- and C-like procedures and control structures and shed their line numbers. —ESR]BASIC stands for “Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code”. Earlier versions of this entry claiming this was a later backronym were incorrect.

Matched Categories

1. • Chemistry
   • Programming Language

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'basic' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #900

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'basic' in Written Corpus Frequency: #1366

3. Adjectives Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'basic' in Adjectives Frequency: #104

Anagrams for basic »

1. SABIC

2. bacis

How to pronounce basic?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say basic in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of basic in Chaldean Numerology is: 1

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of basic in Pythagorean Numerology is: 7

Examples of basic in a Sentence

1. Adam Looney:

   If Marc Goldwein did even basic targeting, then way more of the money would go to low-income borrowers.

2. European Parliament President Martin Schulz:

   We must make clear to Erdogan: we have democracy in our country. That's the end of it ... politicians must live with satire, even the Turkish president, dear Mr Erdogan, you have gone one step too far. You can't do this. Satire is a basic element of democratic culture.

3. The People Daily:

   The new normal does not mean growth is not needed. Reforms lack basic premise if growth is not stable.

4. Ezra Levin:

   This is about transparency, ethics, and the basic functioning of our democracy, taxpaying Americans across the country want to know what he's hiding, and Congress has the power to find out. That's what the tax marches across the country are all about -- local constituents asking their own representatives to perform their constitutional duty to act as a check on an out-of-control President.

5. Khaled Murshed:

   The current situation shows the failure of the state to make any movement towards providing even basic services, this reinforces the demands of regaining the southern state.

Popularity rank by frequency of use