[syn: vestigial, rudimentary]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Rudimentary \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; embryonic.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
rudimentary
adj 1: being or involving basic facts or principles; "the
fundamental laws of the universe"; "a fundamental
incomatibility between them"; "these rudimentary truths";
"underlying principles" [syn: fundamental,
rudimentary, underlying]
2: being in the earliest stages of development; "rudimentary
plans"
3: not fully developed in mature animals; "rudimentary wings"
[syn: vestigial, rudimentary]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
121 Moby Thesaurus words for "rudimentary":
Lilliputian, Tom Thumb, abecedarian, aboriginal, antenatal,
arrested, autochthonous, backward, basal, basic, basilar,
beginning, budding, central, coarse, creative, crucial, crude,
dumpy, dwarf, dwarfed, dwarfish, elemental, elementary, elfin,
embryonic, essential, fetal, first, formative, foundational,
fundamental, generative, genetic, germinal, gestatory, immature,
imperfect, in embryo, in its infancy, in ovo, in the bud,
in the rough, inaugural, inceptive, inchoate, inchoative,
incipient, incunabular, infant, infantile, initial, initiative,
initiatory, introductory, inventive, meager, midget, nanoid,
nascent, natal, original, oversimple, parturient, postnatal,
pregnant, prenatal, primal, primary, prime, primeval, primitive,
primogenial, primordial, pristine, procreative, protogenic, pygmy,
radical, reductionistic, reductive, rough, roughcast, roughhewn,
rude, rudimental, runty, scraggy, scrubby, seminal, shriveled,
shrunk, shrunken, simplistic, squat, stunted, unblown,
uncultivated, uncultured, uncut, underdeveloped, underlying,
undersize, undersized, undeveloped, unfashioned, unfinished,
unformed, unhewn, unlabored, unlicked, unpolished, unprocessed,
unrefined, unshaped, untreated, unworked, unwrought, ur, vestigial,
wizened