bass
/beɪs/
bass adjective: of sound, a voice or an instrument, low in pitch or frequency.

Adjective
Noun (1)
bass (plural basses)
- A low spectrum of sound tones.
- Peter adjusted the equalizer on his audio equipment to emphasize the bass.
- A section of a musical group that produces low-pitched sound, lower than the baritone and tenor.
- The conductor preferred to situate the bass in the middle rear, rather than to one side of the orchestra.
- One who sings in the bass range.
- Halfway through middle school, Edgar morphed from a soprano to a bass, much to the amazement and amusement of his fellow choristers.
- Synonyms:
- basso
- An instrument that plays in the bass range, in particular a bass guitar, double bass, electric bass, or bass synthesiser.
- The musician swung the bass over his head like an axe and smashed it into the amplifier, creating a discordant howl of noise.
- The clef sign that indicates that the pitch of the notes is below middle C.
- The score had been written without the treble and bass, but it was easy to pick out which was which based on the location of the notes on the staff.
Verb
bass (third-person singular simple present basses, present participle bassing, simple past and past participle bassed)
- To sound in a deep tone.
- […] and the Thunder / (That deepe and dreadfull Organ-Pipe) pronounc'd / The name of Proſper : it did baſe my Treſpaſſe1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
Noun (2)
IPA/bæs/
bass (countable and uncountable, plural basses or bass)
- The perch; any of various marine and freshwater fish resembling the perch, all within the order of Perciformes.
Noun (3)
IPA/bæs/
bass (countable and uncountable, plural basses)
- The fibrous inner bark of the linden or lime tree, used for making mats.
- Fibers from other plants, especially palm trees
- Anything made from such fibers, such as a hassock, basket or thick mat.
- BASS, 1, a door mat[1865, William Stott Banks, A List of Provincial Words in use at Wakefield in Yorkshire, Wakefield: J.R.Smith, page 6
- I set off half-heartedly, as best I could sheltering my spare clothes (which were in the straw fish-bass) under my coat. […] The rain made a channel from my trilby down my neck and one handle of the fish-bass gave way.1982 [1980], J. L. Carr, A Month in the Country, Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin Books/Harvester Press, →ISBN, page 2
Proper noun capitalized: Bass
IPA/bæs/
Bass
- A surname.
- A rural town in Bass Coast Shire, Victoria, Australia, named after George Bass.
- An unincorporated community in Jackson County, Alabama.
- An unincorporated community in Newton County, Arkansas.
- An unincorporated community in Casey County, Kentucky.
- An unincorporated community in Cole County, Missouri.
- An unincorporated community in Hardy County, West Virginia, named for the presence of bass (fish) in the local creek.
bass meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
bass in Hindi
- बास
bass in Tamil
- அடித்தொனி, கீழ் அலைவெண் ஒலி, மட்டக்குரல், இங்கிலாந்தில் செய்யப்படும் மாத்தேறல் வகை, தோப்பி வகை, கடல்மீன் இனங்களின் வகை
bass in Marathi
- बास, बाॅज
bass in Urdu
- low in pitch
- ڈھولک ḍhōlak
More languagesFewer languages
- bass in Bengali
- খাদ, অনুদাত্ত, খাদের সুর, শণসূতার কাপড়
- bass in Malayalam
- താഴ്ന്ന സ്ഥായിയിലുള്ള, താഴ്ന്ന, മൃദുശബ്ദമായ, അഗാധ
- bass in Punjabi
- ਬਾਸ
- bass in Gujarati
- બાસ, બાઝ
- bass in Odia
- ବାସ୍
- bass in Nepali
- बास
- bass in Tagalog
- malagong, lagong
- bass in Arabic
- غيتار البيس
- bass in Indonesian
- kakap
- bass in Persian
- گیتار بیس, باس bâs, خارماهی xârmâhi
- bass in Thai
- กีตาร์เบส
- bass in Vietnamese
- ghi-ta bass
Examples of bass in a sentence
- Brooks performed a saxophone solo on stage, with Robert as accompaniment on the bass.
- His low voice allowed him to become a bass in the choir.
- She was sitting in a jazz club, sipping wine and listening to a bass player's solo.
Synonyms of bass
Forms of bass
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | basser |
| superlative | bassest |
| alternative form (dated) | base |
| Noun | |
| plural | basses |
| plural | bass |
| alternative form (archaic) | basse |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | basses |
| present participle | bassing |
| past participle | bassed |
| past | bassed |
Origin of bass
A respelling of base under the influence of Italian basso (“low”).
From Middle English bace, bas, alteration of bars, from Old English bærs (“a fish, perch”), from Proto-West Germanic *bars, from Proto-Germanic *barsaz (“perch”, literally “prickly”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰórsos (“prickle, thorn, scale”). Cognate with Dutch baars (“perch, bass”), German Barsch (“perch”). More at barse.
A corruption of bast.
Words formed from bass
- basslet
- black bass
- calico bass
- chalk bass
- channel bass
- Chilean sea bass
- European sea bass
- grass bass
- green bass
- kelp bass
- largemouth bass
- Otsego bass
- Ozark bass
- peacock bass
- rock bass
- sand bass
- schoolie bass
- sea bass
- silver bass
- smallmouth bass
- speckled bass
- spottail bass
- spotted bass
- striped bass
- white bass
- Bass Coast
- Bass Harbor
- Bass River
- Bass Strait
- acoustic bass
- acoustic bass guitar
- Alberti bass
- bass bar
- bass-bar
- bass-baritone
- bass bin
- bass boat
- bass bomb
- bass C
- bass clarinet
- bass clef
- bass cliff
- bass drop
- bass drum
- bass drummer
- bass fiddle
- bass fiddler
- bass guitar
- bass guitarist
- bass horn
- bassist
- bassless
- basslike
- bassline
- bassly
- bassman
- bass music
- bassness
- bass note
- bass player
Phrases with bass
- bass Cs
- bass sax
- bass bars
- bass bins
- Bass Hill
- Bass Rock
- bass trap
- bass viol
- slap bass
- bass boats
- bass bombs
- bass clefs
71 more phrasesFewer phrases
- bass drops
- bass drums
- bass horns
- bass notes
- bass saxes
- bass staff
- bass traps
- bass viols
- booty bass
- color bass
- great bass
- Miami bass
- murky bass
- synth bass
- bass cliffs
- bass reflex
- bass staffs
- bass staves
- bass violin
- double bass
- future bass
- ground bass
- stride bass
- string bass
- wobble bass
- bass fiddles
- bass guitars
- bass players
- bass violins
- bass violist
- figured bass
- upright bass
- walking bass
- washtub bass
- bass drummers
- bass fiddlers
- bass recorder
- bass reflexes
- bass trombone
- bass violists
- doghouse bass
- drum 'n' bass
- drum and bass
- electric bass
- fretless bass
- keyboard bass
- midtempo bass
- stand-up bass
- bass clarinets
- bass recorders
- bass saxophone
- bass trombones
- bass violinist
- drill 'n' bass
- drill and bass
- tea chest bass
- bass guitarists
- bass saxophones
- bass violinists
- bass saxophonist
- bass saxophonists
- concert bass drum
- Japanese sea bass
- concert bass drums
- great bass recorder
- great bass recorders
- acoustic bass guitars
- play someone like a bass fiddle
- plays someone like a bass fiddle
- played someone like a bass fiddle
- playing someone like a bass fiddle
Words that rhyme with bass
45 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- embrace
- lace
- replace
- mace
- displace
- efface
- plaice
- disgrace
- pes
- abase
- debase
- deface
- interlace
- misplace
- retrace
- white space
- bouillabaisse
- dace
- enlace
- grimace
- nominative case
- red in the face
- -ase
- abaisse
- acoustic bass
- aggrace
- Alsace
- apace
- artspace
- encase
- gather pace
- Harbour Grace
- Havre de Grace
- heart of grace
- into space
- Jace
- Jase
- laisse
- misgrace
- Naas
- outpace
- reys
- supplace
- Thrace
- torace
Questions about bass
- What does bass mean?
- Bass means of sound, a voice or an instrument, low in pitch or frequency.
- What is bass in Hindi?
- Bass in Hindi is बास. See Bass meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is bass?
- Bass can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce bass?
- Bass is pronounced /beɪs/.
Words near bass in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bass (page history and authors); Bass (page history and authors); bass (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bass (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bass (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bass (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); bass (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); bass (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bass (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bass (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); bass (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-bass-low.ogg.
Cite this entry: “bass.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/bass. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
