basically

In a fundamental, essential or basic manner.

Adverb

  1. In a fundamental, essential or basic manner.
    • They've added some fancy features, but it's basically still a crappy car.
  2. Essentially; mostly; pretty much.
  3. Used to refer to the most important or fundamental point that the speaker is making or to indicate a generalization or simplification; sometimes tending towards a meaningless filler word.
    • I shouldn't have done it, basically.
    • To get your eyes tested, you should basically go to the opticians.

Origin

Etymology tree English basic Proto-Italic *-ālis Latin -ālisbor. Old French -albor. ▲ Latin -ālis Old French -elbor. ▲ Latin -ālisbor. Middle English -al Middle English -ly Middle English -ally English -ally English basically From basic + -ally.

Forms

more basically most basically

Synonyms

essentially fundamentally chiefly more often than not