Word.ws English Dictionary

ground basses

ground basses is the plural of ground bass.

Meaning of ground bass

Noun

ground bass (countable and uncountable, plural ground basses)

  1. A constantly repeated bassline or harmonic pattern in a piece.
    • In classical music there are, as the analytical programs tell us, first subjects and second subjects, free fantasias, recapitulations, and codas; there are fugues, with counter-subjects, strettos, and pedal points; there are passacaglias on ground basses, canons ad hypodiapente, and other...1902 [1898], [George] Bernard Shaw, The Perfect Wagnerite […] , second edition, London: Grant Richards, page 3
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see ground, bass.
    Synonyms:
    basso ostinato

Questions about ground basses

What is ground basses the plural of?
Ground basses is the plural of ground bass.

Words near ground basses in the dictionary

  1. ground balls
  2. ground balls with eyes
  3. ground bar
  4. ground bars
  5. ground bass
  6. ground basses
  7. ground beef
  8. ground beefs
  9. ground beetle
  10. ground beetles
  11. ground berries

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ground basses (page history and authors); ground bass (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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