bedrock
bedrock Lexical Profile
bedrock Game Scores & Validity
• noun
The fundamental principles, basis, or most reliable foundation upon which something is built or supported.
"Mutual trust and open communication form the bedrock of any successful partnership."
Solid, unbroken rock underlying unconsolidated surface materials such as soil, sand, clay, or gravel.
"The construction crew had to drill through twenty feet of clay before reaching solid bedrock for the skyscraper's foundation."
The lowest possible level or bottom point of something.
"By late autumn, consumer confidence had hit bedrock due to rising inflation."
• adjective
Fundamental, basic, or forming the essential core of something.
"Freedom of speech remains a bedrock principle of modern democratic societies."
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the mid-19th century as a compound of 'bed' (in the geological sense of a foundational stratum) and 'rock', originally popularized by gold miners in the American West to describe the solid rock layer beneath gold-bearing gravel.