Received Pronunciation

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun A pronunciation of British English, originally based on the speech of the upper class of southeastern England and characteristic of the English spoken at private boarding schools and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities. Until the late 1900s, it was the standard form of English used in British broadcasting.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• proper noun The form of pronunciation of the English language traditionally spoken by the educated classes of the south-east of England, considered to be a standard and used as such in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries. Abbreviation: RP

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the approved pronunciation of British English; originally based on the King's English as spoken at public schools and at Oxford and Cambridge Universities (and widely accepted elsewhere in Britain); until recently it was the pronunciation of English used in British broadcasting