base pair

verb

variants or base-pair

ˈbās-ˌper 

base paired or base-paired; base pairing or base-pairing; base pairs or base-pairs

intransitive verb

: to participate in formation of a base pair

adenine base-pairs with thymine

Examples of base pair in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Unlike bipedal humanoids, the Onero H1 uses a wheeled base paired with articulated arms, prioritizing stability and dexterity over walking. —Kaif Shaikh, Interesting Engineering, 8 Jan. 2026

For instance, the bacterium Carsonella ruddii, which lives as a symbiont within the guts of sap-feeding insects, has an even smaller genome than Sukunaarchaeum, at around 159,000 base pairs. —Jake Buehler, Quanta Magazine, 24 Nov. 2025

As a rule of thumb, the shorter the sequence or read of base pairs, the older the DNA, Meyer-Kaiser said. —Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 7 Nov. 2025

The genome of the female violet copper butterfly, which inhabits a huge swath of territory stretching from the Pyrenees to Siberia, consists of 25 pairs of chromosomes with a total of 547,306,268 base pairs. —Glenn Zorpette, IEEE Spectrum, 4 Nov. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1959, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for base pair

• aftercare
• anywhere
• billionaire
• chinaware
• debonair
• dinnerware
• disrepair
• doctrinaire
• earthenware
• everywhere
• frigidaire
• kitchenware

Medical Definition

base pair

1 of 2 noun

-ˈpa(ə)r, -ˈpe(ə)r 

: one of the pairs of nucleotide bases on complementary strands of nucleic acid that consist of a purine on one strand joined to a pyrimidine on the other strand by hydrogen bonds holding together the two strands much like the rungs of a ladder and that include adenine linked to thymine in DNA or to uracil in RNA and guanine linked to cytosine in both DNA and RNA

base pair

2 of 2 intransitive verb

variants or base-pair

: to participate in formation of a base pair

adenine base pairs with thymine