What does "basin" mean?
A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
Basin
name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·2 syllables ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
- Grammar: basin is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: drainage basin, river basin, alkali flat, alluvial plain.
- Useful contrasts: domed, plastic trough, berm.
- Usage evidence: The basin of a river usually has rich farmland.
How to use "basin"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "basin" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "basin" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "basin" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "basin" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "basin" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "drainage basin" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "basin", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A wide bowl for washing, sometimes affixed to a wall.
"First, as you know, my house within the city Is richly furnished with plate and gold, Basins and ewers to lave her dainty hands;"
- 2 a bowl-shaped vessel; usually used for holding food or liquids wordnet
- 3 A shallow bowl used for a single serving of a drink or liquidy food. obsolete
"[…] Mr. John Knightley, ashamed of his ill-humour, was now all kindness and attention; and so particularly solicitous for the comfort of her father, as to seem—if not quite ready to join him in a basin of gruel—perfectly sensible of its being exceedingly wholesome […]"
- 4 a bathroom sink that is permanently installed and connected to a water supply and drainpipe; where you can wash your hands and face wordnet
- 5 A depression, natural or artificial, containing water.
"This shortly brought them to a bewitching spring, whose basin was incrusted with a frostwork of glittering crystals […]"
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 the entire geographical area drained by a river and its tributaries; an area characterized by all runoff being conveyed to the same outlet wordnet
- 7 An area of land from which water drains into a common outlet; drainage basin.
"Devils Lake is where I began my career as a limnologist in 1964, studying the lake’s neotenic salamanders and chironomids, or midge flies. […] The Devils Lake Basin is an endorheic, or closed, basin covering about 9,800 square kilometers in northeastern North Dakota."
- 8 a natural depression in the surface of the land often with a lake at the bottom of it wordnet
- 9 A shallow depression in a rock formation, such as an area of down-folded rock that has accumulated a thick layer of sediments, or an area scooped out by water erosion.
- 10 the quantity that a basin will hold wordnet
Verb
- 1 To create a concavity or depression in.
"Then axial subsidence basined the surface of the dome."
- 2 To serve as or become a basin.
"To what degree this stress field formed in response to eastward movement of the African plate, to northward movement of the African plate relative to Europe, to basinning of the shelf between the eastern Canaries and Africa, or to other causes is as yet unknown."
- 3 To shelter or enclose in a basin.
"A moan as of distant wind or thunder portended something at hand, the approach of which, basinned as we were among high broken ridges, patchy-scrubbed heights, and penned in by a maze of steep-sided gullies or gorges — we had no chance of observing, until it cam down in hurricane strength."
Proper Noun
- 1 A census-designated place in Jefferson County, Montana.
- 2 A town, the county seat of Big Horn County, Wyoming.
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
"The basin of a river usually has rich farmland."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "basin"?
Common synonyms include: drainage basin, river basin, alkali flat, alluvial plain, alveolation, alveolus.
How do you use "basin" in a sentence?
The basin of a river usually has rich farmland.
Etymology
From Middle English basyn, from Old French bacin, from Vulgar Latin *baccinum (“wide bowl”).