Basis

1. n. The principal component part of a thing.
2. n. The foundation of anything; that on which a thing rests.
3. n. The pedestal of a column, pillar, or statue.
4. n. The ground work the first or fundamental principle; that which supports.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.