rudiment
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A fundamental principle or skill.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
roodihmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈɹudɪmənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
often in the plural
A fundamental principle or skill, especially in a field of learning.
often in the plural
A form that lacks full or complex development.
music
In percussion, one of a selection of basic drum patterns learned as an exercise.
verb
transitive
To ground; to settle in first principles.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Typical Use
- Rare
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A fundamental principle or skill, especially in a field of learning.
Used this way, rudiment is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It turns up most in ethics or values contexts.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Where it naturally appears
- Ethics/values
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use rudiment
- “Meckel's diverticulum is the rudiment of the embryonic yolk sac.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.