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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  

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. 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  

abbreviation

1. registered (trademark)

2. right

3. river

4. rouble

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r ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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 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

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

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 21, 2025

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

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin signed the order last week to extend the four ships’ deployment for a second time, rather than bring the carrier, the USS Dwight D. Eisenhowe r, and its three warships home.

From Seattle Times ● May 31, 2024

But we gain an r in occurrence, occurred, and occurring. orient.

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

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

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026

Some juicy wordplay: How many words can you make with the letters N, U, E, P, G, and R?

From Slate ● Aug. 5, 2026

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

From Salon ● Jun. 28, 2026

Soon after he announced his candidacy, Pratt pointed out that the race is nonpartisan, and that there will not be an R next to his name on the ballot.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2026

“I knew you’d like it,” laughed the letter man, popping two G’s and an R into his mouth and letting the juice drip down his chin.

From "The Phantom Tollbooth" by Norton Juster

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

From Washington Times ● Apr. 28, 2021

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

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

At the 24-in. ranges used in mass chest surveys, the dosages go as high as 2 r. to the chest, but the scatter to the gonads is scarcely increased.

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

“I heard it, and I thought to myself, ‘There are going to be problems with this,’” said Toluca Lake’s Leonard R. Garner Jr.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2026

Ryan worked with Evan R. Kulman of Compass on the listing, while Douglas Elliman agents Paul Brennan and Martha Gundersen helped to secure a buyer for the dwelling.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 4, 2026

Texas law firm Jackson Walker agreed to pay $15 million to settle a civil case from the Justice Department over an ex-partner’s undisclosed romantic relationship with the nation’s former top bankruptcy judge, David R. Jones.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

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

The great philosopher and archaeologist R. G. Collingwood proposed a fairly straightforward technological determinism: new machines encourage new ways of thinking.

From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton

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

Once rolling, the two cars are pretty even, but the advantages of the Golf R’s traction-enhancing all-wheel drive and quick-shifting automatic are undeniable.

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

Her accent is more pronounced, with the T’s and R’s harder, so I can tell she’s getting annoyed.

From "A Place at the Table" by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan

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

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

Deslorieux has the strongest voice of the main cast, crooning with delicate rolling r’s for her character’s accent.

From New York Times ● Nov. 4, 2021

I can still remember her Portuguese accent, the way she rolled her r’s.

From "Wonder" by R. J. Palacio

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

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

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

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

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