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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

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

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

In June 2018, Sampath allegedly texted Peng asking, “What r the other opportunities in Lausd. That we can exploit. Any other area.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2026

But AI systems also fail to count how often the letter r appears in “strawberry.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025

These risks linger as r ecent resilience in the economy shows signs of fading.

From Barron's ● Oct. 14, 2025

Y r u being so creepy n txting my frnd?

From "Ask the Passengers" by A.S. King

At the meeting, Supervisor Steve Lavagnino noted that, in his district, Santa Maria High School is directly across the street from a firearms store called Get R Gun.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 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

In this group, the proportion of R faecis ranged from 0% to 3.3%, R intestinalis from 0% to 5.5%, and R inulinivorans from 0% to 6.6%.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 22, 2026

A higher sustainable growth rate lifts the economy’s equilibrium interest rate, or what’s known as R*.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

I gave three packs to a bug on R who was forever cadging cigarettes and also had an incredible body odor problem.

From "Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing" by Ted Conover

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

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

One, who had soaked up 1,000 r., died.

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

Led by Chelsy R. Eddings and colleagues, including Watanabe, the work appeared online in Neuron on November 24, 2025, and in its February 4, 2026, issue.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 17, 2026

Series creator R. Scott Gemmill accepted the award, with several members of the cast and crew on stage behind him.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 15, 2026

The first time Samantha R. went to Burning Man, it was on a whim.

From Salon ● Sep. 11, 2026

Gerald R. Ford International Airport is recognized as the best small airport in the United States.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 25, 2026

It could be clearly seen in the writings of African American leaders such as Richard R. Wright, a minister and editor of a black church newspaper in Philadelphia.

From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler

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

The R's then seized the initiative, with Chair's introduction in place of the injured Jack Colback giving them extra impetus.

From BBC ● Dec. 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

Listening to my 7-year-old nephew sounding out words last week, a dark thought occurred: How long before the three Rs become as outdated among young people as Thomas Guide maps?

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 13, 2026

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

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

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025

It was a note, and it read: New CC was testing for undetected Ys, Os, Rs.

From "The Darkest Minds" by Alexandra Bracken

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

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

Author John Hendrickson pointed out to Biden that he still seems to struggle with his "r's."

From Salon ● Jan. 17, 2020

She spoke with a little bit of a Mexican accent, trilling her r's.

From "Holes" by Louis Sachar

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

Do you involve the surfe rs and the people in the movie in editing their sections in the movie?

From Time Magazine Archive

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

From Time Magazine Archive

Then came the Old Bear with the main force, Ser Mallador Locke with the baggage train and packhorses, and finally Ser Ottyn Wythe rs and the rear guard.

From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin