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• three R's
  three R's

  plural noun

  reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, regarded as the fundamentals of education.
• three Rs
  three Rs

  plural noun

  the three skills regarded as the fundamentals of education; reading, writing, and arithmetic

three R's

American  

plural noun

1. reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic, regarded as the fundamentals of education.

2. the fundamentals, basic knowledge, or skills of any system or field.

   the three R's of good government.

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three Rs British  

plural noun

1. the three skills regarded as the fundamentals of education; reading, writing, and arithmetic

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three R's Idioms  

1. The fundamentals of education, as in It's a terrible school; the children are not even taught the three R's. It is widely believed that Sir William Curtis, an alderman who became Lord Mayor of London, once presented a toast to the three R's—reading, riting, and rithmetic—thereby betraying his illiteracy. In any event, the term was picked up by others and so used from the early 1800s on.

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Etymology

Origin of three R's

First recorded in 1820–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

three R's three Rs

There are three R’s you need to get done over the weekend: rest, repair and recreate.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 27, 2023

Gasca has three two-way players who have been three-year starters and is calling them the three R’s — Rashawn Jackson, Robert Lamar and Romeo Signore.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2022

Usually we think of the three R’s, but those are skills.

From Washington Times ● Jun. 2, 2015

The truth: They specialise in indie's three R's: jolly, jaunty joy.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 7, 2013

Remarkably, the three R’s of gene physiology are acutely dependent on the molecular structure of DNA—on the Watson-Crick base pairing of the double helix.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

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to my 7-year-old nephew sounding out words last week, a dark thought occurred: How long before the three Rs become as outdated among young people as Thomas Guide maps?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

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

From MarketWatch ● Nov. 3, 2025

Melissa: I think we also need, in this conversation, a return to the first two of the three Rs that many of us learned in school: reduce and reuse when you can.

From Seattle Times ● Apr. 19, 2024

Leary says the numbers are also important if scientists are serious about one of the cornerstones of biomedical research: the three Rs.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 12, 2021

Musical study of a sort being almost as general as study of the "three Rs," it must be said that the gross forms of ignorance are utterly inexcusable.

From How to Listen to Music, 7th ed. Hints and Suggestions to Untaught Lovers of the Art by Henry Edward Krehbiel