rule

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See also: Rule and rulé

English

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Pronunciation

  • (UK, US) IPA(key): /ɹuːl/, [ɹuːɫ]
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Rhymes: -uːl

Etymology 1

From Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, itself an early semi-learned borrowing from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from regere (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”); see regent.

Noun

rule (countable and uncountable, plural rules)

  1. A regulation, law, guideline.
    All participants must adhere to the rules.
    • (Can we date this quote by Tillotson and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      We profess to have embraced a religion which contains the most exact rules for the government of our lives.
    • 2013 June 22, “T time”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8841, page 68:
      The ability to shift profits to low-tax countries by locating intellectual property in them […] is often assumed to be the preserve of high-tech companies. […] current tax rules make it easy for all sorts of firms to generate […] “stateless income”: profit subject to tax in a jurisdiction that is neither the location of the factors of production that generate the income nor where the parent firm is domiciled.
  2. A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Robert South, Sermons
      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.
  3. A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing.
  4. A regulating principle.
  5. The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
    • Bible, Hebrews xiii. 17
      Obey them that have the rule over you.
    • (Can we date this quote by Alexander Pope and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      His stern rule the groaning land obeyed.
  6. 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.
  7. (obsolete) Conduct; behaviour.
    • (Can we date this quote by Shakespeare and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      This uncivil rule; she shall know of it.
  8. (law) An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
    (Can we find and add a quotation of Wharton to this entry?)
  9. (mathematics) A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.
    a rule for extracting the cube root
  10. (printing, dated) 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.

Derived terms

Terms derived from the noun rule

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Related terms

Translations

straight-edge — see ruler
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Etymology 2

From Middle English rulen, borrowed from Old French riuler, from Latin regulāre (“to regulate, rule”), from regula (“a rule”); see regular and regulate.

Verb

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  1. (transitive) To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
    • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 13, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
      And Vickers launched forth into a tirade very different from his platform utterances. He spoke with extreme contempt of the dense stupidity exhibited on all occasions by the working classes. He said that if you wanted to do anything for them, you must rule them, not pamper them. Soft heartedness caused more harm than good.
  2. (slang, intransitive) To excel.
    This game rules!
  3. (transitive) To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).
  4. (intransitive) To decide judicially.
  5. (transitive) To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.
    • (Can we date this quote by Atterbury and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
      That's a ruled case with the schoolmen.

Synonyms

  • (to excel): rock (also slang)

Antonyms

  • (to excel): suck (vulgar slang)

Derived terms

Terms derived from rule (verb)

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Spanish

Verb

rule

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of rular.
  2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of rular.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of rular.
  4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of rular.
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