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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

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

Over clanging keyboards and piercing guitar notes that teetered on the edge of tunefulness, Smith sneered and pledged his allegiance to the three R’s: “Repetition, repetition, repetition.”

From Washington Post ● Jan. 25, 2018

In an article in Wired magazine in 1993, he dismissed the three R’s — reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic — as outmoded.

From New York Times ● Aug. 1, 2016

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

From Washington Times ● Jun. 2, 2015

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

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

She notes that all labs that receive federal funding must answer to institutional animal care and use committees, which follow the three Rs and oversee the welfare of all lab animals.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 12, 2021

For me, the WFH wardrobe is all about the three Rs: ritual, respect and reality.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 17, 2020

Once they get a groundwork in the three "Rs" they are considered well educated for life.

From Prowling about Panama by Miller, George A.