rule

English Online Dictionary. What means rule‎? What does rule mean?

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɹuːl/
• (Wales) IPA^(key): /ɹɪu̯l/
• (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA^(key): /ɹʉl/
• Rhymes: -uːl

Etymology 1

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.

Noun

rule (countable and uncountable, plural rules)

1. A regulation, law, guideline.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:rule
2. A regulating principle.
3. (uncountable) The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
4. A normal condition or state of affairs.

5. (obsolete) Conduct; behaviour.
6. (law) An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
7. (mathematics) A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.

   a rule for extracting the cube root

8. A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
9. A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing.
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

Related terms

• regulate
• regent
• regular

Collocations

Translations

Etymology 2

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

Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)

1. (transitive, stative) To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
2. (slang, intransitive, stative) To excel.

   Synonyms: (slang) rock; see also Thesaurus:excel

   Antonyms: stink, (vulgar slang) suck

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.
6. (transitive) To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).

Conjugation

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 3

Related to revel.

Noun

rule

1. (obsolete) Revelry.

Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)

1. (obsolete, intransitive) To revel.

Further reading

• “rule”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “rule”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “rule”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• rule in Britannica Dictionary
• rule in Sentence collocations by Cambridge Dictionary
• rule in Ozdic collocation dictionary
• rule in WordReference English Collocations

Anagrams

• Ruel, UERL, lure, ReLU

Czech

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈrulɛ]

Noun

rule f

1. dative/locative singular of rula

Igala

Etymology

Compare with Yoruba sáré

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /rú.lé/

Verb

rúlé

1. to run

Middle English

Noun

rule

1. Alternative form of reule

Spanish

Verb

rule

1. inflection of rular:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative