Meaning & use

baseline

noun·Academic

A minimum or starting point used as a reference for comparison or measurement.

See it in a sentence

The doctor recorded a baseline blood pressure reading before starting the new medication.

Sales from last year serve as the baseline for measuring this year's growth.

A note on using this word

Baseline is also the boundary line at each end of a basketball or tennis court, a distinct sporting sense of the word.

Words with a similar meaning

benchmarkstandard

Choose a synonym to suit the sentence. Meanings can overlap without being identical.

Make it your own

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