Posted by *englishbaby* · February 13, 2011 · 3 replies
I know the meaning of both. But people in some forums say that the two are the same things.
Wheras I know that cellar is a room under ground level for storage.Basement is the level under ground level not a room. For example: The toys are sold in the basement .
basement
ground level
first floor
second floor ...etc.
Am I wrong or else is this an British and American difference such as gas and petrol??
No it's not a US/UK difference. Your definition is fine. It's a matter of the use of the space, as you say. A cellar is for storage (possibly in a house but also eg a wine cellar in a vineyard), while a basement is used for something. So a shop might have a basement level (as you say) or you might live in a basement flat. You'd never use "cellar" in this context.
Another slightly different use for cellar is "an underground room used to shelter from tornadoes", usually called a storm cellar. Remember the Wizard of Oz?
Level vs single room is also important though. Under our apartment block is a space divided into about 40 lockable storage areas (one per apartment) divided by corridors. That for me is the basement - possibly also because to get to it you have to go outside the house and back in through another door. A cellar, for me, has an entrance through the floor of the house.
Whoops, wrong 😞 never trust your intuitions where language is concerned - always check.
I just googled it and you can say "cellar flat". But a google battle showed 39,200 entries for "cellar flat" vs 738,000 for "basement flat".
So "basement flat" is clearly much more common.
I have seen a little differences between cellar and basement! Basements usually have walls of cement or whateverthey are built of. A celler like stated above is smaller than a basement and back in the early settlements to the 1950's they were dirt walls, now most are concrete, not all but most.
