three R's
Americanplural noun
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reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, regarded as the fundamentals of education.
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the fundamentals, basic knowledge, or skills of any system or field.
the three R's of good government.
plural noun
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the three skills regarded as the fundamentals of education; reading, writing, and arithmetic
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The fundamentals of education, as in It's a terrible school; the children are not even taught the three R's. It is widely believed that Sir William Curtis, an alderman who became Lord Mayor of London, once presented a toast to the three R's—reading, riting, and rithmetic—thereby betraying his illiteracy. In any event, the term was picked up by others and so used from the early 1800s on.
Etymology
Origin of three R's
First recorded in 1820–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
There are three R’s you need to get done over the weekend: rest, repair and recreate.
From Washington Post • Feb. 27, 2023
Gasca has three two-way players who have been three-year starters and is calling them the three R’s — Rashawn Jackson, Robert Lamar and Romeo Signore.
From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 8, 2022
The three R’s - reading, writing and arithmetic - are, or once were, considered the foundations of a basic skills-oriented education program.
From Washington Times • Nov. 15, 2017
The truth: They specialise in indie's three R's: jolly, jaunty joy.
From The Guardian • Feb. 7, 2013
Remarkably, the three R’s of gene physiology are acutely dependent on the molecular structure of DNA—on the Watson-Crick base pairing of the double helix.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.