From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishthe elements of somethingthe elements of somethingBASICthe most simple things that you have to learn first about a subject She doesn’t even know the basic elements of politeness. → element
Examples from the Corpus
the elements of something• All the elements of theft must be proved before a conviction may be secured for this offence.• Words are the elements of the code that stand most directly for segments of reality in all its range and variety.• And in fact there are also topics to be drawn from the elements of the story - such as youth unemployment or divorce.• Then we should have some algorithm for generating the elements of this complementary set.• Managers can act as if the elements of a decision process or an organization are tightly coupled.• These then are some of the elements of Green's amalgam.• Moreover, once the elements of theft are satisfied, it does not matter that the victim has no civil law remedy.• By studying the structure of the elements of language Saussure dispenses with the tie between meaning and the exercise of formal rules.• His imaginative stories use the elements of poetry -- rhythm, rhyme, alliteration. 