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🔑 Simple or main 🛒 Essential items 🧪 Not acidic 😐 Unoriginal
basic

basic

46 8.6
Very ordinary and lacking original ideas
  • adjective
  • /ˈbeɪsɪk/
  • Offensive
translation icon : básico
  • The group set is very basic, not good at all.

Now I know that sounds boring, stupid, basic, but it's the truth.

Examples

  • Then why are you acting all basic?

    North of the 10 (2022)

  • After all, they are so basic, so simple, as to be taken for granted.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • So I have a very basic style to begin with.

  • But how to not do basic stupid things?

  • It's completely, you know, it's completely basic and it's so much fun.

  • Now I know that sounds boring, stupid, basic, but it's the truth.

    Evan Carmichael

  • - Hmm, well it's a little basic but I'm sure Jamie will like it.

    The Midas Touch (2020)

  • This is your pretty basic Elsa braid right now.

  • Look, I do understand what you're going through, but the basic problem here is that you're feeling guilty.

    Blood Hook (1987)

  • Her outfit is so basic that I can find it in any store.

Synonyms

common
vsbasic
  • Offensive
182 5.7

Low quality and often rude in style

focuses on unoriginal mainstream choices rather than poor quality
common-and-garden
vsbasic
  • UK
4.9

Ordinary and not special

criticizes mainstream predictability and lack of imagination
common or garden variety
vsbasic
  • UK
4.4

Ordinary and not special, like a simple jacket you can buy anywhere

carries informal disapproval about being unoriginal and conventional

Antonyms

creative
772 3.3

Showing imagination to make art or new ideas

original
250 3.6

New and different, not copied from others

Compounds

basic training
25 3.4

A first period of military training for new soldiers with hard exercise and strict rules

basic principle
22 2.7

An important rule or idea that forms the base for other knowledge

basic assumption
4 3.3

A simple idea or belief that people accept without proof and that supports an argument

basic requirement
4 1.8

A necessary thing you must have or meet to be allowed to do something

Basic English
  • Archaic
1 3.4

A simplified form of English that uses a small set of common words for international communication

basic price
  • Specialized
1 3.2

The amount a seller charges before adding sales tax or VAT, including any government help the seller gets

basic bitch
  • Slur
9.9

A person who likes popular trends and is not original

basic cognitive process
  • Specialized
4.6

A simple mental action like seeing, remembering, or paying attention

basic color
  • Specialized
7.2

A dye with a positive charge that sticks to acid parts and stains cells and fabrics

basic dye
  • Specialized
5.3

A positively charged stain used to colour acidic parts of cells

basic iron
  • Specialized
6.5

A type of raw iron with high phosphorus used to make steel after removing it

basic point defense missile system
  • Specialized
6.2

A missile system on a ship that defends it from close incoming missiles or planes

basic slag
  • Specialized
8.4

Material from making steel that farmers use as fertilizer

How Unoriginal

cliched
1 5.4
basic
  • Offensive
46 8.6
predictable
189 2.5
mainstream
75 3.4
conventional
175 2.8

Surface Forms

basic positive

Morphology

basic = base (semi-transparent) = base + ic

The slang pejorative sense is an attitudinal extension of 'basic' (simple/fundamental) and involves a cultural connotation not predictable from the morphology alone.

Etymology

Basic originally means 'simple' from base/basis, and a helpful way to remember the slang use is to think of someone with only common, predictable tastes, so calling them 'basic' means they seem ordinary and not original.