Bare-bones

The answer

BASIC

5 letters. See every clue for this answer on the BASIC answer page.

Used 8 times across 5 distinct years; most recently in 2026; first recorded in 2007. It appears in 5 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• NOFRILLS (5 uses in xd)
• PLAIN (3 uses in xd)
• MINIMAL (2 uses in xd)
• SPARTAN (2 uses in xd)
• AUSTERE (1 uses in xd)

Other clues for BASIC

Every other clue in this collection answered by BASIC, most used first.

• Fundamental - used 106 times, most recently in 2026
• No-frills - used 67 times, most recently in 2026
• Elementary - used 45 times, most recently in 2026
• Rudimentary - used 27 times, most recently in 2026
• Kind of training - used 16 times, most recently in 2013
• Meat-and-potatoes - used 13 times, most recently in 2025
• Simple - used 12 times, most recently in 2025
• Like 101 courses - used 9 times, most recently in 2024
• Essential. - used 7 times, most recently in 2000
• Underlying - used 7 times, most recently in 2005
• Like some training - used 6 times, most recently in 2014
• Nuts-and-bolts - used 6 times, most recently in 2018

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Arm bones - ULNAE, used 122 times
• Ankle bones - TARSI, used 101 times
• Arm bones - ULNAS, used 82 times
• Pelvic bones - SACRA, used 77 times
• Forearm bones - ULNAS, used 64 times
• Bare minimum - LEAST, used 55 times

Search the clue collection

Search by clue words or by answer, or type a pattern with the letters you have and a blank for each square you do not know. The characters _ ? . and - all work as blanks.