meat and potatoes vs basis

meat and potatoes and basis both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
meat and potatoes	Yes	No	No	No
basis	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, basis is a hypernym of meat and potatoes; that is, basis is a word with a broader meaning than meat and potatoes:

meat and potatoes: the fundamental part
basis: the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained

Other hypernyms of meat and potatoes include base, cornerstone, foundation, fundament, groundwork.

meat and potatoes (noun)	basis (noun)
the fundamental part	the fundamental assumptions from which something is begun or developed or calculated or explained
	a relation that provides the foundation for something
	the most important or necessary part of something