basal

• POS: Adjective
• HYPHEN: ba=sal

CIDE DICTIONARY

basal, a. 

 Relating to, or forming, the base.  [1913 Webster]

Basal cleavage. See under Cleavage. -- Basal plane (Crystallog.), a plane parallel to the lateral or horizontal axis.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

basal, adj.
1 of, at, or forming a base.
2 fundamental.

Idiom

basal metabolism the chemical processes occurring in an organism at complete rest.

Etymology

BASE(1) + -AL

THESAURUS

basal

ab ovo, aboriginal, basic, basilar, beginning, bottom, bottommost, central, constituent, constitutive, crucial, elemental, elementary, embryonic, essential, foundational, fundamental, generative, genetic, germinal, gut, in embryo, in ovo, lowermost, lowest, material, nethermost, of the essence, original, pregnant, primal, primary, primeval, primitive, primordial, pristine, protogenic, radical, rudimental, rudimentary, seminal, substantial, substantive, underlying, undermost