rudiment
[noun]
Synonyms: essential, basic, element, fundamental, part and parcel, alphabet, ABC's, elements, fundamentals, grammar, principles

[TahlilGaran] English Synonym Dictionary ▲

rudiment noun. ['ru:dɪm(ǝ)nt] M16.
[French, or Latin rudimentum, from rudis RUDE adjective, after elementum ELEMENT noun.]
1. In pl. The first principles or elements of a subject; the basic knowledge or skills required before further progress in a subject is possible. Usu. foll. by of. M16.
■ E. Waugh Lessons in the rudiments of theology.
■ P. Auster Victor learned some of the rudiments of speech, but he never progressed.
b. A first or basic principle. rare. M16.
c. (Usu. Rudiment.) In pl. (The name of) a class in a Roman Catholic school, college, or seminary, now only spec. the third class, immediately above Figures and below Grammar, in certain Jesuit schools. E18.

2. In pl. The imperfect beginnings of something; the preliminary stages; the foundations. Usu. foll. by of. M16.
■ R. L. Stevenson The rudiments of a notion of the rules of health.
■ P. V. White Mother..hadn't the rudiments of a religious faith.

3. A preliminary stage; an undeveloped or immature form; spec. in Biology, the earliest identifiable structure in an embryo which will develop into an organ, limb, leaf, etc. E17.

■ rudi'mental adjective = RUDIMENTARY L16.

[TahlilGaran] English Dictionary ▲