rule

UK /ɹuːl/ · CA, US /ɹul/

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. Doublet of rail, regal, regula, and rigol.

Synonyms

rule

Derived terms

264 terms

180-degree rule, 20-80 rule, 3-3-3 rule, 3.5% rule, 3-revert rule, 45-degree rule, 4-to-1 rule, 50/30/20 rule, 50-30-20 rule, 5-5-5 rule, 6-2-1 rule, 621 rule, 68-95-99.7 rule, 7-38-55 rule, 7-7-7 rule, 80-20 rule, 8x8 rule, Abegg's rule, above the neck rule, adverse interest rule, Allen's rule, Ampère's rule, area rule, as a rule, as-if rule, at-rule, away goals rule, baseball rule, batter rule, Bayes' rule, Bergmann's rule, best evidence rule, blood rule, board rule, Born rule, Born's rule, boukólos rule, bright-line rule, Buckley rule, Buckley's rule, business rule, Byrd rule, cab-rank rule, cardinal rule, Carnot's rule, chain rule, Chatham House rule, Chvorinov's rule, colonial rule, composing rule, Cope's rule, cosine rule, Cramer's rule, Cromwell's rule, crumbling skull rule, cube rule, direct rule, divide and rule, doomsday rule, Dühring's rule, Durham rule, Eddie the Eagle rule, eggshell rule, Emery's rule, empirical rule, em rule, en rule, every rule has an exception, exception that proves the rule, exclusionary rule, felony murder rule, fifty-move rule, firefighter's rule, fireman's rule, five-second rule, flat tire rule, Fleming's right-hand rule, footrule, formation rule, Foster's rule, framerule, frame rule, gag rule, Geiger-Nuttall rule, Gloger's rule, golden rule, Goldwater rule, Gougu rule, grandmother rule, ground rule, Haldane's rule, Hastert rule, Hebb's rule, home rule, home rule class, Horner's rule, house rule, inference rule, infield fly rule, island rule, Johnson's rule, jointing rule, Jordan rule, Jordan's rule, Kasha's rule, last antecedent rule, Las Vegas rule, lesbian rule, Lesbian rule, L'Hôpital's rule, l'Hôpital's rule, Lipinski's rule of five, literal rule, looks-like-a-function rule, mailbox rule, majority rule, Markovnikov's rule, Markownikoff's rule, Marquis of Queensberry rules, Meeussen's rule, mercy rule, metarule, Miranda rule, mischief rule, M'Naghten rule, mob rule, m-rule, Mull of Kintyre rule, nasciturus rule, neck rule, neurule, Newton-Cotes rule, ninety-ninety rule, nonrule, n-rule, octet rule, Oddo-Harkins rule, offside rule, off-side rule, one-drop rule, personal rule, Pfizer's rule of five, phase rule, pie rule, plain meaning rule, platinum rule, plumb rule, plurality rule, postal rule, Pottery Barn rule, power rule, precedence rule, product rule, prophylactic rule, prudent man rule, Queensberry rule, Rapoport's rule, Rent's rule, reverse one-drop rule, right-hand rule, Robert's Rules of Order, Rome rule, Rule 34, Rule 62, ruleage, rule-based, rulebook, rule book, rule-book, rule-bound, rulebound, rulebreaker, rulebreaking, ruledom, rulee, rule-follower, ruleful, rule joint, ruleless, rulemaker, rulemaking, rulemonger, rule nisi, rule of 72, rule of action, rule of Colel, rule of cool, rule of coss, rule of decision, rule of engagement, rule of five, rule of four, rule of law, rule of lenity, rule of life, rule of man, rule of order, rule of reason, rule of recognition, rule of sevens, rule of strict construction, rule of succession, rule of the road, rule of the shorter term, rule of thirds, rule of three, rule-of-thumb, rule of thumb, rule of tincture, rule of two, rules-based order, ruleset, rule set, ruletaker, rule utilitarianism, rulewriter, rulewriting, ruly, run the rule over, Saytseff's rule, selection rule, self-rule, setting rule, silver rule, Simpson's rule, sine rule, slayer rule, slide rule, sliding-rule, space rule, standing rule, subrule, ten-second rule, there is an exception to every rule, thin skull rule, Thornton's rule, three-episode rule, three-revert rule, three-second rule, three seconds rule, touch-move rule, transformational rule, trapezium rule, trapezoidal rule, trapezoid rule, Trouton's rule, two-person rule, two-pizza rule, two-second rule, two second rule, under the rule, unrule, unruly, unspoken rule, unwritten rule, Vegas rule, Wallace rule of nines, Warnsdorff's rule, white coat rule, work rule, work to rule, work-to-rule, Zaitsev's rule, zero one infinity rule

Related terms

81 terms

regulate, regent, regular, principle, test, criterion, rule of thumb, saying, restriction, limitation, limit, constraint, command, prohibition, instruction, procedure, routine, convention, norm, algorithm, word, phrase, sentence, characteristic, property, attribute, predicate, formula, rigid, flexible, legal, constitutional, strict, general, specific, basic, unwritten, unspoken, stupid, silly, clear, confusing, ambiguous, unambiguous, simple, complicated, familiar, strange, clear-cut, straightforward, adhere [⇒ thesaurus] to, administer, draft, follow, obey, comply with, violate, rule maker, regulator, lawgiver, lawmaker, legislator, policy maker, administrator, bureaucrat, violator, drafter, Madison, bureaucracy, government, administration, leeway, freedom, liberty, whim, caprice, subjectivity, unpredictability, exception, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class V § 613. Habit, Appendix:Roget MICRA thesaurus/Class I § 82. Conformity

Holonyms

code, law, regulation, policy, guideline, directive, rulebook, ruleset, rules of the road, process