baseline

4 definitions • 6 examples

a line on a sports field, such as the one in tennis, that marks the end of the playing area, or the one in baseball that marks the path along which players run:

She delivered a final serve from the baseline to win the match.

an imaginary line used as a starting point for making comparisons:

a baseline assessment

an amount of money or a number that is used to compare other amounts of money or numbers to, especially as a way of measuring whether they have increased or decreased:

a baseline price/figure/rate

$13 million was added to the baseline budget for the district attorney's office.

a minimum level of quality, safety, etc. that is considered to be necessary in a particular situation:

baseline for sth Europe's steelmakers have proposed a system that sets a baseline for carbon efficiency.

baseline of sth The new features should provide a baseline of security for Windows users.