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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

Etymology

Origin of R⁵

An American designation established in 1968

Origin of R.⁹

From the Latin word recipe

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

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

“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

Here’s what cooking for Thursday’s White House state dinne r honoring Kenya.

From Seattle Times ● May 23, 2024

Here’s how to use an apostrophe with . . . • possessives.To indicate ownership, add r to a singular noun or to a plural noun that does not end in s.

From "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner

Test your knowledge of the English language: How many words can you create with the letters P, Y, C, R, O, and T?

From Slate ● Jul. 20, 2026

“I don’t make my decision by who has an R or a D,” he said.

From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026

The woman and her partner, identified by authorities as Marine R and Marc B, were arrested in Fatima on Thursday.

From BBC ● May 23, 2026

R: I never, ever imagined that this could happen.

From Barron's ● May 21, 2026

Nina had disguised Kaz’s crow-and-cup tattoo before they’d entered the Ice Court, but he hadn’t let her near the R on his bicep.

From "Six of Crows" by Leigh Bardugo

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

From Washington Times ● Apr. 28, 2021

Now a professor at the Royal Roads University in Victoria, Canada, he says he, too, happened upon a couple of bats nestled in N. r. elongata pitchers, but he "never put two and two together."

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 26, 2011

During 7 weeks of daily pitcher patrols, Grafe and his team found bats in more than one-quarter of the 223 N. r. elongata plants they checked.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 26, 2011

But fluoroscopy, in which the image is viewed instantaneously on a screen, takes longer, may entail 3 to 10 r. per minute to the chest and .1 to .4 r. per minute to the gonads.

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 the case was largely managed by assistant U.S. attorney Caelainn Carney, according to court transcripts, Faruqui was aiming his frustration at her bosses, including senior prosecutor Jonathan R. Hornok, and the leadership at DOJ.

From Salon ● Jul. 30, 2026

R. James Woolsey: The embattled CIA director in the Clinton administration has died.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026

His wife, Asia R. A., was handed a juvenile sentence of nine and a half years.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

One will focus on communications and will be led by former central bankers Mervyn King, Arminio Fraga and Peter R. Fisher, the Fed announced July 9.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 10, 2026

“This is J. R. Isidore speaking,” he said briskly, adopting the new authority which he had so recently acquired via Mr. Sloat’s vidphone.

From "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" by Philip K. Dick

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

But they’re only permitted to enter because R’s parents live there, and because they have a two-day-old baby in the car.

From New York Times ● Jan. 18, 2024

Anti-terror prosecutor Jean-François Ricard said that Armand R's mother had raised concerns about his behaviour although there was no evidence at the time to take further measures against him.

From BBC ● Dec. 5, 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

And R's never look like backward E's to Freak, which is the way they look to me sometimes, unless I really squint and think about it.

From "Freak The Mighty" by Rodman Philbrick

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

Morgan Stanley and Goldman, Sachs will each get $4 million for their work in fine-tuning the financial details of the Chemical-Manufacture rs Hanover deal.

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

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