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What is the difference between foundation and basis?

foundation | basis |

As nouns the difference between foundation and basis

is that foundation is the act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect while basis is a starting point, base or foundation for an argument or hypothesis.

foundation

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • The act of founding, fixing, establishing, or beginning to erect.
  • That upon which anything is founded; that on which anything stands, and by which it is supported; the lowest and supporting layer of a superstructure; groundwork; basis; underbuilding.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= The attack of the MOOCs , passage=Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations . University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.}}
  • (card games) In solitaire or patience games, one of the piles of cards that the player attempts to build, usually holding all cards of a suit in ascending order.
  • (architecture) The lowest and supporting part or member of a wall, including the base course and footing courses; in a frame house, the whole substructure of masonry.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2012, date=May 20, author=Nathan Rabin, work=The Onion AV Club
  • , title= TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Marge Gets A Job” (season 4, episode 7; originally aired 11/05/1992) , passage=“Marge Gets A Job” opens with the foundation of the Simpson house tilting perilously to one side, making the family homestead look like the suburban equivalent of the Leaning Tower Of Pisa. }}
  • A donation or legacy appropriated to support a charitable institution, and constituting a permanent fund; endowment.
  • That which is founded, or established by endowment; an endowed institution or charity.
  • (cosmetics) Cosmetic cream roughly skin-colored, designed to make the face appear uniform in color and texture.
  • A basis for social bodies or intellectual disciplines.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
  • , title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.

    Derived terms

    * foundation stone

    Synonyms

    *(act of founding) establishment *groundwall

    Antonyms

    *(act of founding) abolition, dissolution, ruination

    basis

    English

    Noun

    (en-noun)
  • A starting point, base or foundation for an argument or hypothesis.
  • An underlying condition or circumstance.
  • * 2013 , Daniel Taylor, Danny Welbeck leads England's rout of Moldova but hit by Ukraine ban'' (in ''The Guardian , 6 September 2013)[http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/sep/06/england-moldova-world-cup-qualifier-matchreport]
  • Hodgson may now have to bring in James Milner on the left and, on that basis , a certain amount of gloss was taken off a night on which Welbeck scored twice but barely celebrated either before leaving the pitch angrily complaining to the Slovakian referee.
  • regular frequency
  • You should brush your teeth on a daily basis at minimum.
    The flights to Fiji leave on a weekly basis .
    Cars must be checked on a yearly basis .
  • (linear algebra) In a vector space, a linearly independent set of vectors spanning the whole vector space.
  • (accounting) Amount paid for an investment, including commissions and other expenses.
  • (topology) A collection of subsets ("basis elements") of a set, such that this collection covers the set, and for any two basis elements which both contain an element of the set, there is a third basis element contained in the intersection of the first two, which also contains that element.
  • Usage notes

    * The construction "on a daily/weekly/etc. basis" is usually an unnecessarily-wordy substitute for simply "daily/weekly/etc."

    Derived terms

    * basis point (4) * tax basis * fare basis * cost basis * basic

    Synonyms

    * (starting point for discussion) base

    References