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• r
  r

  the theoretical intrinsic rate of increase of a population, equivalent to the difference between the birth and death rates divided by the number of individuals in the population.
• R
  R

  noun

  the 18th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.
• r.
  r.

  abbreviation

  rabbi.
• R.
  R.

  abbreviation

  (in prescriptions) take.

r

¹ American  

Ecology.

1. the theoretical intrinsic rate of increase of a population, equivalent to the difference between the birth and death rates divided by the number of individuals in the population.

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r ² American  

abbreviation

• rs
  plural

1. radius.

2. Commerce. registered.

3. Electricity. resistance.

4. Physics. roentgen.

5. royal.

6. ruble.

7. rupee.

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R ³ American  

[ahr] / ɑr /

Or r

noun

• R's,
  plural
• Rs,
  plural
• r's,
  plural
• rs
  plural

1. the 18th letter of the English alphabet, a consonant.

2. any spoken sound represented by the letter R or r, as in ran, carrot, or rhyme.

3. something having the shape of R .

4. a written or printed representation of the letter R or r.

5. a device, as a printer's type, for reproducing the letter R or r.

6. three R's.

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R ⁴ American  

[ahr] / ɑr /

verb

1. Informal. are.

   Oysters R in season.

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R ⁵ American  

abbreviation

1. Trademark. restricted: a rating assigned to a movie by the MPA indicating that children under the age of 17 will not be admitted to a theater showing the film unless accompanied by an adult.

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R ⁶ American  

abbreviation

1. Chemistry. radical.

2. Mathematics. ratio.

3. regular: a man's suit or coat size.

4. Electricity. resistance.

5. Theater. stage right.

6. Physics. roentgen.

7. Chess. rook.

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R ⁷ American  

Symbol.

1. the 18th in order or in a series.

2. (sometimes lowercase) the medieval Roman numeral for 80.

3. Biochemistry. arginine.

4. Physics. universal gas constant.

5. registered trademark: written as superscript ® following a name registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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r. ⁸ American  

abbreviation

• rs
  plural

1. rabbi.

2. railroad.

3. railway.

4. range.

5. rare.

6. Commerce. received.

7. recipe.

8. replacing.

9. residence.

10. right.

11. rises.

12. river.

13. road.

14. rod.

15. royal.

16. rubber.

17. ruble.

18. Baseball. run; runs.

19. rupee.

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R. ⁹ American  

Or R.

abbreviation

1. (in prescriptions) take.

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R. ¹⁰ American  

abbreviation

1. rabbi.

2. Radical.

3. radius.

4. railroad.

5. railway.

6. (in South Africa) rand; rands.

7. Réaumur.

8. rector.

9. redactor.

10. regina.

11. Republican.

12. response.

13. rex.

14. river.

15. road.

16. royal.

17. ruble.

18. rupee.

19. Theater. stage right.

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R. ¹ British  

abbreviation

1. registered (trademark)

2. right

3. river

4. rouble

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R. ² British  

abbreviation

1. rabbi

2. rector

3. Regina

4. Republican

5. response (in Christian liturgy)

6. Rex

7. River

8. Royal

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R ³ British  

symbol

1. chem radical

2. currency

   1. rand

   2. rupee

3. Réaumur temperature (scale)

4. physics electronics resistance

5. roentgen or röntgen

6. chess rook

7. Royal

8. chem gas constant

9. 1. restricted exhibition (used to describe a category of film certified as unsuitable for viewing by anyone under the age of 18)

   2. ( as modifier )

      an R film

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r. ⁴ British  

abbreviation

1. rare

2. recto

3. Also: r. rod (unit of length)

4. ruled

5. cricket baseball run(s)

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r ⁵ British  

/ ɑː /

noun

1. the 18th letter and 14th consonant of the modern English alphabet

2. a speech sound represented by this letter, in English usually an alveolar semivowel, as in red

3. See three Rs

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r Scientific  

1. Abbreviation of radius

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R Idioms  

1. see three R's.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• R's
  plural
• Rs
  plural
• r's
  plural
• rs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of R⁵

An American designation established in 1968

Origin of R.⁹

From the Latin word recipe

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

r R r. R. R's Rs r's rs

Mark Joseph Stern: This idea of republican virtue, lowercase r, civic virtue, the Framers were obsessed with it.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

“The extreme amongst the vulgar in London doubtlessly is, to omit the r altogether—to convert far into fah, hard into hahd, cord into cawd,” wrote Benjamin Smart, an articulation expert, in 1836.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026

All togethe r, Pfizer and its peers seem to have come out far better than expected from the Trump administration’s pricing and tariff gambits.

From Barron's ● Sep. 30, 2025

“They r a gift I accept more than money or shiny objects.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2024

Curiously, though, they did not use the symbol to distinguish among their versions of r, 10, and 100.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Rated: R, for language Running time: 1 hour, 28 minutes Playing: Opens Oct.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 22, 2026

“When you rate a movie PG-13 or even R, you run the risk of cutting out some of that revenue... The risk appetite at the big animation studios is a little bit lower these days.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2026

She describes the purpose of the visit as an "off-site meetings with Mr K R Murdoch and other senior executives from News Corp and News UK".

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

The Multistrada is typically shopped against the equally intrepid BMW R 1300 GS; and KTM’s 1390 Super Adventure.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 29, 2026

The fourth R of gene physiology, essential to both the survival and mutability of organisms, might be “repair.”

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

For Chicago, Sharon chose avery r. young, a Chicago-born Black poet, composer and activist.

From Washington Times ● Apr. 28, 2021

As pitcher plants go, N. r. elongata is especially well suited to the bats.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 26, 2011

By tracking only bats collected from N. r. elongata pitchers, he says, Grafe's team may have missed individuals that used other roosting spots and overestimated the importance of pitchers to the species as a whole.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 26, 2011

A newcomer was Indian Motorcycle Co. with a two-cylinder, two-cycle job developing 12 h. p. at 4,500 r. p. m.

From Time Magazine Archive

She erected a big white sign in the front yard on which she had carefully painted, in black letters with gold outlines, r. m. walls art studio.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

"While stroke has traditionally been considered a disease of older adults, our findings show that stroke is becoming increasingly common in younger adults," said study author Emily R. Fisher, MD, of the University of Cincinnati.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 15, 2026

The USS Gerald R. Ford set a post-Vietnam War record when it returned to Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia in May from a 326-day deployment, which also earned the team a rare Presidential Unit Citation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

The Lincoln is not the only American carrier to face issues during a lengthy time at sea: the USS Gerald R. Ford also suffered various problems during a recent 326-day deployment.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

The company said Steve Eck, who has been serving as interim chief financial officer since R. Brent Jones left in June to take another position, will continue as chief accounting officer.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 22, 2026

“You made your reparations,” Sarah R. replied, nodding to the arm he’d used to shield her.

From "Legendary Frybread Drive-In" by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Also, a radical idea: “We need to ensure that our students are graduating with the right grade level skills of the 4 R’s: reading, writing, arithmetic, and reasoning.”

From Slate ● Feb. 5, 2024

Additionally, its interior quality shines over the Golf R’s.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 1, 2023

You’re in such a unique position because vintage dealers are often checking off each box in the three R’s of recycling: reduce, reuse, recycle.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2023

Their “Threepenny” selections in particular demonstrated how best to balance the piece’s infectious melodies and bitter texts: Gerstein’s playing buoyant and dancing, Gruber’s semi-Sprechstimme snarling, with wickedly rolling R’s on phrases like “Beefsteak Tartar.”

From New York Times ● Jul. 11, 2023

“Well, that’s good. You’d never get ahold of him. He’s watching the TV. You hear that? R’s driving me nuts. My nerves is shot.”

From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole

To go American, Mielewska said it's all about getting the Rs and the vowels right.

From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026

According to the team, the foundation of a circular space economy lies in the 3 Rs: reduce, reuse, and recycle.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 3, 2025

There are plenty of Rs in the mix, and we’re glad to have new allies.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 25, 2025

My 4-year-old grandson can count the three Rs in strawberry.

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025

When Mr. MacMahon said words like terrible he made it sound like they had seven or eight Rs in ’em ’stead of just one.

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

New England is ready to absorb Scotland as its seventh state as soon as the Scots agree to stop pronouncing their r’s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026

Leto’s grumbling Brit-inflected baritone is an unrecognizable concoction of trilled r’s and plummy vowels — and the best performance he’s done in years.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 3, 2026

Her accent clipped off the final r's, making the words come out "remembah" and "ovah."

From Salon ● Jun. 19, 2023

Ms. Walters, who died Dec. 30 at her home in New York, according to ABC, spent the following decades overcoming her mangled r’s and became one of television’s premier interrogators of the newsworthy.

From Washington Post ● Dec. 30, 2022

“No,” Mrs. Johnson said, “Porto Rico. Keep your r’s soft. Try again.”

From "When I Was Puerto Rican" by Esmeralda Santiago

There's a lot of spoken dialogue and I was doing my best to not sound too horribly American - - to soften my rs and elongate my vowels.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 8, 2012

Submissions will be reviewed by an esteemed panel of former Showdown winners, photo edito rs and industry leaders, and voted on by ballot to determine the top 5 invited artists.

From Time Magazine Archive

Two years ago Promoter Vandeburg talked Fair managers into selling their Big Show rs a peg on which to hang a national campaign of travel to eleven far-western States instead of merely plugging San Francisco.

From Time Magazine Archive

Rolling his rs, the Rev. Peter Marshall, Scottish-born chaplain of the U.S.

From Time Magazine Archive

And I remember something I learned in school, a trabalenguas, tongue twister, with lots of rs: Rápido rápido corren los carros sobre los rieles del ferrocarril.

From "Beast Rider" by Tony Johnston & María Elena Fontanot de Rhoads

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