Word.ws English Dictionary

firebase

Syllables: fi·re·baseUK/ˈfʌɪəbeɪs/US/ˈfaɪɚˌbeɪs/

firebase noun: an encampment designed to provide indirect artillery support to infantry troops operating beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps; a fire support base.

firebase: an encampment designed to provide indirect artillery support to infantry troops operating beyond...
Image: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Noun

firebase (plural firebases)

  1. An encampment designed to provide indirect artillery support to infantry troops operating beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps; a fire support base.
    • They had each set up a one-tank firebase, and become the center of a small community. Behind the sandbagged fort that each crew had built, a cluster of refugee huts and sprung up, and now, as the company drove by, these were the scenes of farewells.1986, Ralph Zumbro, “Road to Pleiku”, in Tank Sergeant, New York, N.Y.: Pocket Books, →ISBN, page 102
    • US ground troop operations in the A Shau Valley were strengthened by fire support bases strategically located throughout the area. Firebase names like Eagle's Nest, Berchtesgaden, and Currahee evoked connections to the 101st Airborne's storied past during WWII. […] Our assignment after Hamburger...2005, Arthur Wiknik, Jr., “The A Shau Valley”, in Nam-sense: Surviving Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division, Drexel Hill, Pa.; Newbury, Berkshire: Casemate Publishers, →ISBN, page 55
    Synonyms:
    fire support base, FB, FSB

Synonyms of firebase

  • fire support base
  • FB
  • FSB

Forms of firebase

pluralfirebases
alternative formfire-base
alternative formfire base

Origin of firebase

From fire + base.

Questions about firebase

What does firebase mean?
Firebase means an encampment designed to provide indirect artillery support to infantry troops operating beyond the normal range of fire support from their own base camps; a fire support base.
What part of speech is firebase?
Firebase is a noun.
How do you pronounce firebase?
Firebase is pronounced /ˈfʌɪəbeɪs/ (UK).
What is the plural of firebase?
The plural of firebase is firebases.

Words near firebase in the dictionary

  1. fireballs
  2. firebar
  3. firebare
  4. firebares
  5. firebars
  6. firebase
  7. firebases
  8. firebath
  9. firebathe
  10. firebathed
  11. firebathes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: firebase (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-firebase.ogg.

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