Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Plural form of rudiment.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a statement of fundamental facts or principles

Etymologies

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Examples

  • But how little would what are commonly called the rudiments of education, add to their qualifications as laborers?

    Cotton is King, and Pro-Slavery Arguments Comprising the Writings of Hammond, Harper, Christy, Stringfellow, Hodge, Bledsoe, and Cartrwright on This Important Subject E. N. [Editor] Elliott

  • Just because it is set on flat, not upright: and learned men will tell you that those two flukes are the "rudiments" -- that is, either the beginning, or more likely the last remains -- of two hind feet.

    Madam How and Lady Why Charles Kingsley 1847

  • In these free schools the teacher was, apparently, the priest of the town or village, and, as far as we can judge, the curriculum composed what may be called the rudiments of general education, with an elementary course in Christian Doctrine.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913

  • Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679Philosophicall rudiments concerning government and society.

    Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia Library Washington Hilleary 1861

  • But, because the first _tasks of learners ought to be little and single_, we have filled this first book of training one up to see a thing of himself, with nothing but rudiments, that is, with the chief of things and words, or with the grounds of the whole world, and the whole language, and of all our understanding about things.

    The Orbis Pictus Johann Amos Comenius 1631

  • Perhaps, beyond some kind of rudiments, they never would.

    The Boat of a Million Years Anderson, Poul, 1926- 1989

  • Jean Mabillon, then parish priest at Neufville, by whom he was well instructed in the "rudiments", and from whom he received a donation to enable him to continue his studies.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • In this school many have been taught the "rudiments," and so the average intelligence has increased.

    Our Brother in Black: His Freedom and His Future Atticus Greene 1881

  • My intention was only to furnish a kind of rudiments, by which those who feel some interest in religion might be trained to true godliness.

    manybooks.net 2010

  • It was about studies and lessons, dealing with the rudiments of knowledge, and the schoolboyish tone of it conflicted with the big things that were stirring in him - with the grip upon life that was even then crooking his fingers like eagle's talons, with the cosmic thrills that made him ache, and with the inchoate consciousness of mastery of it all.

    Chapter 13 2010

Comments

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  • What are rudiments in relation to fife and drum, c_b?

    July 23, 2008

  • Rudiments are basic units of drumbeats. See here. Or here, which has sound files as well.

    July 23, 2008