The Natural Semantic Metalanguage is a controversial linguistic theory which claims to be just that. The theory says that there is a set of words (currently about 65) called semantic primes, which are the base level concepts. All other concepts can be defined using them, and they themselves cannot be defined. Furthermore the theory says that these words are universal, being used in every language (though sometimes these semantic primes are words, sometimes affixes and sometimes phrases.) The list of primes is always a work in progress, but after over 40 years the users of NSM would claim that most of the have been borne out in research in dozens of languages.
This list of primes is (~ marks 'allolexes' where the same prime has different forms depending on context):
Substantives: I, YOU, SOMEONE, PEOPLE, SOMETHING~THING, BODY
Relational substantives: KIND, PART
Determiners: THIS, THE SAME, OTHER~ELSE
Quantifiers: ONE, TWO, SOME, ALL, MUCH~MANY, LITTLE~FEW
Evaluators: GOOD, BAD
Descriptors: BIG, SMALL
Mental predicates: THINK, KNOW, WANT, FEEL, SEE, HEAR
Speech: SAY, WORDS, TRUE
Actions, events, movement: DO, HAPPEN, MOVE
Location, existence, specification: BE (SOMEWHERE), THERE IS, BE (SOMEONE/SOMETHING)
Possession (SOMETHING) IS (SOMEONE'S)
Life and death: LIVE, DIE
Time: WHEN~TIME, NOW, BEFORE, AFTER, A LONG TIME, A SHORT TIME, FOR SOME TIME, MOMENT
Space: WHERE~PLACE, HERE, ABOVE, BELOW, FAR, NEAR, SIDE, INSIDE, TOUCH
Logical concepts: NOT, MAYBE, CAN, BECAUSE, IF
Intensifier, augmentor: VERY, MORE
Similarity: LIKE~AS~WAY