rule
/ɹul/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.94 in modern English
4
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
Countable; Uncountable
noun
A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.
Countable; Uncountable
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "There's little can be said in 't; 'Tis against the rule of nature."
- "Obey them that have the rule over you."
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ɹul/
- British English: /ɹuːl/
Usage
Inflected Forms
rules (plural)
rules (present, singular)
ruling (participle, present)
ruled (participle, past)
ruled (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
ruled (first person, past)
rulest (archaic, present)
ruled (past, second person)
ruledst (archaic, past)
ruleth (archaic, present)