rule
//ɹuːl//
Forms
- Plural
- rules
- present (v1)
- rule
- past (v2)
- ruled
- past participle (v3)
- ruled
- present participle
- ruling
- 3rd person singular
- rules
Definitions
1.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.
2.A regulating principle.
- There's little can be said in 't; 'Tis against the rule of nature.
3.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.
4.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.
1.To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
2.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.
3.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.
4.To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).
Frequency
Overall
Common· #617
By learning goal
- Everyday conversation
- Uncommon
- General reading & writing
- Common
- Academic
- Uncommon
- Literature
- Rare
Related words
Synonyms
Word family
Etymology
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.