Rudiment

We'll be learning the rudiments of thermodynamics next week.

This boy is forest-born, / And hath been tutored in the rudiments / Of many desperate studies.

The very emphasis on reading readiness and on the methods employed to teach children the rudiments of reading has meant that the other, the higher, levels of reading have tended to be slighted.

I have the rudiments of an escape plan.

But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit / Those rudiments, and see before thine eyes / The monarchies of the earth.

The single leaf is the rudiment of beauty in landscape.

Show me your rudiments.