Word.ws English Dictionary

barebones

barebones is the alternative form of bare-bones.

barebones is the plural of barebone.

Meaning of bare-bones

Adjective

bare-bones (comparative more bare-bones, superlative most bare-bones)

  1. (idiomatic) Minimalist; lacking that which is not essential.
    • Meals on early space flights were bare-bones affairs; able to supply nutrition, but severely lacking in palatability.
    Synonyms:
    no-frills, skeleton
  2. (idiomatic) Describes a computer sold preassembled, but without certain essential components, such as a processor, memory, and hard drive.
    • Emil bought a bare-bones rig and a new CPU at the computer show, then popped in his old hard drive.

Meaning of barebone

Noun

barebone (plural barebones)

  1. A very lean person, especially one whose bones show through the skin.
    Synonyms:
    skin and bones, thin person
  2. (broadly) Something that contains solely the essentials; something that fits the bare minimum.

Questions about barebones

What is barebones the alternative form of?
Barebones is the alternative form of bare-bones.

Words near barebones in the dictionary

  1. barebacks
  2. bareboat
  3. bareboating
  4. barebone
  5. bareboned
  6. barebones
  7. barebow
  8. barebum
  9. barebums
  10. barebutt
  11. barechested

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: barebones (page history and authors); bare-bones (page history and authors); barebone (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “barebones.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/barebones. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.