three Rs

See also: three R's

English

Alternative forms

• three R's

Etymology

From the initial consonant in the pronunciation of reading, (w)riting, (a)rithmetic (aphetically), 1820s.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

the three Rs pl (plural only)

1. The basic education received in primary schools, especially (but not necessarily limited to) reading, writing and arithmetic.
   • 1875, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 8, in Eight Cousins‎^[1]:

     “You shall teach me, and when I am a woman we will set up a school where nothing but the three R's shall be taught, and all the children live on oatmeal, and the girls have waists a yard round,” said Rose, with a sudden saucy smile dimpling her cheeks.

   • 1885 July, “A Forgotten Pamphleteer”, in Tinsleys’ Magazine, volume 37, London: Tinsley Brothers, page 84:

     From these studies the schoolmaster would sally forth into his school-rooms, and instruct his boys in the religion, the fanaticism of Hugolatry. He taught them nothing else. Hugo was for him the three R’s, catechism and grammar, deportment and the use of the globe.

2. (by extension) The basic precepts of any subject matter.
   • 2002, Barbara Coloroso, Kids are Worth It!: Giving Your Child the Gift of Inner Discipline:

     Chapter 11: The Big C and the Three Rs: Chores, Relaxation, Recreation, and Rebellion

   1. (sustainability) Reduce, reuse and recycle.

Translations

reading, writing and arithmetic

• Japanese: 読み書きそろばん (ja) (yomikaki soroban)

Further reading

• the three Rs on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “the three Rs”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Anagrams

• Herters