Word.ws English Dictionary

hard r

hard r noun: a rhotic sound which is emphatic or strongly enunciated; in English accents especially a postvocalic consonantal r, as distinguished from its absence in a nonrhotic accent or from an R-coloured vowel.

Noun (1)

hard r (plural hard r's)

  1. (informal) A rhotic sound which is emphatic or strongly enunciated; in English accents especially a postvocalic consonantal r, as distinguished from its absence in a nonrhotic accent or from an R-coloured vowel.
    • Her English accent was still noticeable, though hard r's surfaced in it from time to time.1978, Margaret Atwood, “Polarities”, in Dancing Girls and other stories, Seal edition, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart-Bantam, →ISBN, page 59
    • Rhineland Germans have a soft, back "r," while those in eastern and southern Germany use an alveodental "r," due (one supposes) to the respective influence of the French on the one hand and Slavs or Italians on the other. The "hard r" is said to carry better in an auditorium or on the radio, so...1999 March 7, David Mannix, “The Theater Season; Stage Speech”, in The New York Times, page sec. 2 p. 4
  2. (US) The hard r at the end of the word nigger when spoken with a General American accent and considered more offensive than the African-American Vernacular English pronunciation conventionally spelled nigga, whose final sound is sometimes called soft a.
    • First and foremost / You are under no circumstances / Ever permitted / To say the n-word / I don't care if it's soft a or hard r2016 May 5, MItchell Joseph Sewell, Standpoint: Black Queer Southern Revelations, University of South Carolina - Columbia, Senior Theses. 87, page 45; Tips for a Successful Interracial Relationship
    • While telling the story, Student B said the "N-word". Student A told Student B that using that language was not okay. Student B's response was "It's okay, I don't say it with the hard R."2021, Dean of Students Office, “Fall 2021”, in Bias Advisory and Response Team Updates, Xavier University, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2023

Noun (2) capitalized: hard R

hard R (plural hard Rs)

  1. (US) A movie that is intentionally produced to be R-rated ("Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian") by the Motion Picture Association (MPA), typically due to its multiple scenes of violence or nudity.
    • Sugar Cookies would probably rate a 'hard-R' today, but six years ago it got an X, made a brief appearance on the 42nd Street porno circuit, and disappeared without a trace.1979 January 11, Berkeley Art Museum, Pacific Film Archive, “Sugar Cookies”, in Program archive
    • For a "soft R" like "Four Weddings and a Funeral," which features a smattering of profanity, a theater might check identifications only lightly. But it will turn tough for a "hard R" like Oliver Stone's "Natural Born Killers," one of the most violent movies of recent years.1996 February 18, Trip Gabriel, “The Ratings Game At the Cineplex”, in The New York Times, page Section 2, Page 1
  2. Alternative letter-case form of hard r.

Examples of hard r in a sentence

  • The "hard r" is said to carry better in an auditorium or on the radio, so performers from the Rhineland must learn to deliver those "theatrical r's."1999 March 7, David Mannix, “The Theater Season; Stage Speech”, in The New York Times, page sec. 2 p. 4:
  • There is both a soft r and a hard r, the latter usually spelled ŕ (ŕege – king).2002, Kenneth Katzner, Kirk Miller, “Basque”, in The Languages of the World, 3rd edition, Routledge, →ISBN, page 58:
  • ‘Make sure you hit the hard R’s.’ He was obsessed with R’s.2022 January 28, Dave Itzkoff, “Watch the Throne: How Joel Coen Came to Make ‘The Tragedy of Macbeth’”, in The New York Times, page AR16:

Forms of hard r

pluralhard r's
alternative formhard R
alternative formhard-r
pluralhard Rs
alternative formhard-R

Questions about hard r

What does hard r mean?
Hard r means a rhotic sound which is emphatic or strongly enunciated; in English accents especially a postvocalic consonantal r, as distinguished from its absence in a nonrhotic accent or from an R-coloured vowel.
How do you use hard r in a sentence?
The "hard r" is said to carry better in an auditorium or on the radio, so performers from the Rhineland must learn to deliver those "theatrical r's."
What part of speech is hard r?
Hard r is a noun.
What is the plural of hard r?
The plural of hard r is hard r's.

Words near hard r in the dictionary

  1. hard powers
  2. hard pull
  3. hard pulls
  4. hard pushed
  5. hard put
  6. hard r
  7. hard r's
  8. hard real-time
  9. hard redirect
  10. hard redirects
  11. hard reset

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hard r (page history and authors); hard R (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “hard r.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hard_r. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.