rudimentary

  • 1Rudimentary — Ru di*men ta*ry, a. [Cf. F. rudimentaire.] 1. Of or pertaining to rudiments; consisting in first principles; elementary; initial; as, rudimental essays. [1913 Webster] 2. (Biol.) Very imperfectly developed; in an early stage of development;… …

    The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • 2rudimentary — I adjective abecedarian, basal, basic, beginning, crude, elemental, elementary, embryonic, essential, formative, fundamental, germinal, germinative, immature, inceptive, inchoate, incohatus, incomplete, initial, initiative, initiatory, original,… …

    Law dictionary

  • 3rudimentary — 1827; see RUDIMENT (Cf. rudiment) + ARY (Cf. ary) …

    Etymology dictionary

  • 4rudimentary — [adj] basic, fundamental abecedarian, basal, beginning, early, elemental, elementary, embryonic, immature, initial, introductory, larval, nuts and bolts*, primary, primitive, simple, simplest, uncompleted, undeveloped, vestigial; concepts 546,549 …

    New thesaurus

  • 5rudimentary — ► ADJECTIVE 1) involving or limited to basic principles. 2) immature, undeveloped, or basic. DERIVATIVES rudimentarily adverb …

    English terms dictionary

  • 6rudimentary — [ro͞o΄də men′tər ē, ro͞o΄dəmen′trē] adj. of, or having the nature of, a rudiment or rudiments; specif., a) elementary b) incompletely or imperfectly developed c) vestigial: sometimes rudimental rudimentarily [ro͞o΄də men ter′ə lē, ro͞o΄dəmen′tər… …

    English World dictionary

  • 7rudimentary — ru|di|men|ta|ry [ˌru:dıˈmentəri] adj 1.) a rudimentary knowledge or understanding of a subject is very simple and basic ≠ ↑sophisticated ▪ Gradually, I acquired a rudimentary knowledge of music. ▪ my rudimentary German 2.) rudimentary equipment,… …

    Dictionary of contemporary English

  • 8rudimentary — [[t]ru͟ːdɪme̱ntri[/t]] 1) ADJ GRADED Rudimentary things are very basic or simple and are therefore unsatisfactory. [FORMAL] The earth surface of the courtyard extended into a kind of rudimentary kitchen... They are deprived of the ability to… …

    English dictionary

  • 9rudimentary — adjective 1 a rudimentary knowledge or understanding of a subject is very simple and basic: a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese 2 rudimentary equipment, methods, systems etc are very basic and not advanced: The classroom equipment is pretty… …

    Longman dictionary of contemporary English

  • 10rudimentary — adjective Date: 1839 1. consisting in first principles ; fundamental < had only a rudimentary formal education D. J. Boorstin > 2. of a primitive kind < the equipment of these past empire builders was rudimentary A. J. Toynbee > 3. very&#8230; …

    New Collegiate Dictionary