rudiment

[ roo-duh-muhnt ]
See synonyms for: rudimentrudiments on Thesaurus.com

noun
  1. 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.

  2. 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

1
1540–50; <Latin rudīmentum early training, first experience, initial stage, equivalent to rudi(s) unformed, rough (see rude) + -mentum-ment (-ī- for -i- after verbal derivatives)

Words 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 Sully
  • Yet 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 Sully
  • No; 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. Benson
  • Some 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.

British Dictionary definitions for rudiment

rudiment

/ (ˈruːdɪmənt) /


noun
  1. (often plural) the first principles or elementary stages of a subject

  2. (often plural) a partially developed version of something

  1. biology an organ or part in its earliest recognizable form, esp one in an embryonic or vestigial state

Origin of rudiment

1
C16: from Latin rudīmentum a beginning, from rudis unformed; see rude

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012