Basically means at bottom, once the details are stripped away. Basically the same, basically finished, it's basically free.
In speech it is mostly a filler, and a sentence usually reads better with it cut. Where it does work is to flag a simplification you know is rough — basically, it doubles. Note basic beneath it, from the Greek for a foundation.
1adverbbasicallyAt bottom, once the details are stripped away.
“Basically, the film is about a boy who wants to be a dancer.”
basically is a qualifier.
Proto-Indo-European
*leyǵ- — to bind, tie
Latin
alligāre
Old French
alier — to join together, unite; to alloy (metals); (cooking) to combine ingredients
Middle French
alier
Anglo-Norman
alier
Middle English
allien
English
ally
English, today
basically
Built from
From basic + -ally. ally comes from Middle English allien, alien (“to form an alliance, associate, join; to become an ally; to introduce (someone) as an ally; to marry; to become related (to someone); to attack, engage in combat; to combine; (cooking) to combine ingredients, especially to bind them together”)alie, alleye, allie, ally, allye, aly, alye, alyȝe, from Anglo-Norman alier, allier, Middle French alier, allierallyer, alyer, and Old French alier (“to join together, unite; to alloy (metals); (cooking) to combine ingredients”) (modern French allier), from Latin alligāre, the present active infinitive of alligō, adligō (“to bind around, to, or up (something), bandage, fasten, fetter, tie; to hold fast; to detain, hinder”), from al-, ad- + ligō (“to bind, tie; to bandage, wrap around; to unite”) (from Proto-Indo-European leyǵ- (“to bind, tie”)). a doublet of allay and alligate and alloy and ligament.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA