Final answer:
In basic paging, a page table entry maps a virtual page to a physical frame in memory, aiding in the translation of virtual to physical addresses.
Step-by-step explanation:
A page table entry in the context of basic paging in operating systems is a component of a page table that contains the mapping between a virtual page and a physical frame in memory. Each entry represents a virtual page that belongs to a process, and the contents of the entry contain a reference to a physical frame in memory. This allows the system to translate a virtual address space into physical addresses, facilitating memory management and enabling processes to have their own virtual address spaces.