rule
nounEtymology
From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root *h₃reǵ-; see regent. Doublet of rail, regal, regula, and rigol.
- derived from *h₃réǵeti✻
- derived from regula
- derived from riule
- inherited from reule
Definitions
A regulation, law, guideline.
- All participants must adhere to the rules.
- You have to follow the rules to enter the qualifiers for the football tournament.
- We profess to have embraced a religion which contains the most exact rules for the government of our lives.
A regulating principle.
- There's little can be said in 't; 'Tis against the rule of nature.
The act of ruling
The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
- Obey them that have the rule over you.
- His stern rule the groaning land obeyed.
›+ 17 more definitionsshow fewer
A normal condition or state of affairs.
- My rule is to rise at six o'clock.
- As a rule, our senior editors are serious-minded.
Conduct
Conduct; behaviour.
- This uncivil rule; she shall know of it.
An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an…
An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain…
A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.
- a rule for extracting the cube root
A ruler
A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
- As we may observe in the Works of Art, a Judicious Artist will indeed use his Eye, but he will trust only to his Rule.
- It is not right to pervert the judge by moving him to anger or envy or pity—one might as well warp a carpenter's rule before using it.
A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying…
A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing.
A thin plate of brass or other metal, of the same height as the type, and used for…
A thin plate of brass or other metal, of the same height as the type, and used for printing lines, as between columns on the same page, or in tabular work.
To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
To excel.
- This game rules!
To decide judicially.
- The US supreme court has ruled unanimously that natural human genes cannot be patented, a decision that scientists and civil rights campaigners said removed a major barrier to patient care and medical innovation.
To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule
To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.
- That's a ruled case with the school-men.
To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).
Revelry.
To revel.
A surname.
An unincorporated community in Carroll County, Arkansas, United States.
A town in Haskell County, Texas, United States.
The neighborhood
- synonymrule
- neighborregulate
- neighborregent
- neighborregular
- neighborprinciple
- neighbortest
- neighborcriterion
- neighborrule of thumb
- neighborsaying
- neighborrestriction
- neighborlimitation
- neighborlimit
- neighborconstraint
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at rule. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at rule. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
8 hops · closes at rule
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA