rudiment
Usually rudiments.
the elements or first principles of a subject: the rudiments of grammar.
a mere beginning, first slight appearance, or undeveloped or imperfect form of something: the rudiments of a plan.
Biology. an organ or part incompletely developed in size or structure, as one in an embryonic stage, one arrested in growth, or one with no functional activity, as a vestige.
Origin of rudiment
1Words Nearby rudiment
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use rudiment in a sentence
Many adults, it is said, hardly have a rudiment of this feeling, pairing the most fiercely antagonistic tints.
Children's Ways | James SullyYet even in the case of this child one could observe now and again a rudiment of the tendency to bring in what is hidden.
Children's Ways | James SullyNo; what struck me was that never have I seen in you the smallest rudiment or embryo of a conscience or of any moral sense.
The Angel of Pain | E. F. BensonSome little trace would be kept by the clinging force of heredity, and at some time or another this rudiment would appear.
The love of the sex with man is not the origin of conjugial love, but is its first rudiment, 98.
The Delights of Wisdom Pertaining to Conjugial Love | Emanuel Swedenborg
British Dictionary definitions for rudiment
/ (ˈruːdɪmənt) /
(often plural) the first principles or elementary stages of a subject
(often plural) a partially developed version of something
biology an organ or part in its earliest recognizable form, esp one in an embryonic or vestigial state
Origin of rudiment
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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