The word Rus or Rus' (Русь in Cyrillic Alphabet) may refer to: The Cyrillic alphabet (or azbuka, from the old name of the first letters) is an alphabet used to write six natural Slavic languages ( Belarusian, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Russian, Serbian, and Ukrainian) and many other languages of the former Soviet Union, Asia and Eastern Europe. ...

• the Rus' (people) of disputed origin who were at the roots of the statehood of Eastern Slavic peoples;
• the territories they ruled, also known by the Latinized name, Ruthenia;
• Kievan Rus', the most powerful of early Ruthenian (Eastern Slav) states;
• the legendary founder of Russia, brother of Lech and Czech.

See also: Etymology of Rus and derivatives. The origins of the Rus (or Rus , Русь) are controversial. ... The Slavic peoples are the most numerous ethnic and linguistic body of peoples in Europe. ... Latin - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... Ruthenia is a name applied to parts of Eastern Europe which were populated by Eastern Slavic peoples, as well as to various states that existed in this territory in the past. ... Kievan Rus′ (Ки́евская Ру́сь, Kievskaya Rus in Russian; Київська Русь, Kyivs’ka Rus’ in Ukrainian) was the early, mostly East Slavic¹ state dominated by the city of Kiev (ru: Ки́ев, Kiev; uk: Ки́їв, Kyiv), from about 880 to the middle of the 12th century. ... The Russian Federation (Russian: Росси́йская Федера́ция, transliteration: Rossiyskaya Federatsiya or Rossijskaja Federacija), or Russia (Russian: Росси́я, transliteration: Rossiya or Rossija), is a country that stretches over a vast expanse of eastern Europe and northern Asia. ... According to an old legend, Lech, Czech and Rus were eponymical brothers who founded the three Slavic nations: Poland, Bohemia and Ruthenia respectively. ... Originally Rus was a medieval state and country consisting mostly of Early East Slavs. ...

Other, unrelated meanings include:

• the Danish spelling of russ, a Scandinavian cultural phenomenon associated with graduation from high school.
• the Ashkenazi/Yiddish pronunciation and transliteration for the Hebrew name Ruth.