# rule
## English
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ɹuːl/
* (Wales) IPA: /ɹɪu̯l/
* (Scotland, Northern Ireland) IPA: /ɹʉl/
* Audio (US); [ɹ̠ʷuːɫ]:(file)
* Audio (US); [ɻʷʊːɫ]:(file)
* 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)
* A regulation, law, guideline.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:rule
    All participants must adhere to the rules.
** a. 1694, John Tillotson, Of The Obligations of Christians to a Holy Life: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.
* A regulating principle.
** c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]:There's little can be said in 't; 'Tis against the rule of nature.
* The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 13:17:Obey them that have the rule over you.
** 1725, Homer, “Book III”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume I, London: […] Bernard Lintot, →OCLC:His stern rule the groaning land obeyed.
* 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.
* (obsolete) Conduct; behaviour.
** c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iii]:This uncivil rule; she shall know of it.
* (law) An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.
* (mathematics) A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.
    a rule for extracting the cube root
* A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.
** a. 1716, 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.
** 1981, Aristotle, “Rhetoric, the Counterpart of Dialectic”, in W. Rhys Roberts, Ingram Bywater, transl., Rhetoric and On Poetics, Pennsylvania: The Franklin Library, →OL:It is not right to pervert the judge by moving him to anger or envy or pity—one might as well warp a carpenter's rule before using it.
* A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing.
* (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

* 180-degree rule
* 20-80 rule
* 3-revert rule
* 4-to-1 rule
* 50/30/20 rule
* 50-30-20 rule
* 6-2-1 rule
* 621 rule
* 68-95-99.7 rule
* 80-20 rule
* 8x8 rule
* Abegg's 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
* 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
* cab-rank rule
* cardinal rule
* Carnot's rule
* chain rule
* Chatham House rule
* Chvorinov's 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
* formation rule
* Foster's rule
* 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
* 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
* Meeussen's rule
* mercy rule
* Miranda rule
* M'Naghten rule
* mob rule
* Mull of Kintyre rule
* nasciturus rule
* Newton-Cotes rule
* ninety-ninety 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
* platinum rule
* plumb rule
* plurality rule
* postal rule
* precedence rule
* product rule
* prophylactic rule
* prudent man rule
* Rapoport's rule
* Rent's rule
* reverse one-drop rule
* right-hand rule
* Robert's Rules of Order
* Rome rule
* Rule 62
* rule-based
* rule book
* rule-book
* rule-bound
* rule-follower
* rule joint
* 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 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 utilitarianism
* 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
* ten-second rule
* there is an exception to every rule
* thin skull rule
* Thornton's 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
* unspoken rule
* unwritten rule
* Vegas rule
* Wallace rule of nines
* white coat rule
* work rule
* work to rule
* work-to-rule
* Zaitsev's rule
* zero one infinity rule

##### Related terms

* regulate
* regent
* regular

##### Collocations

* legal rules
* constitutional rule
* strict rules
* general rules
* specific rules
* basic rules
* unwritten rules
* unspoken rules
* rigid rules
* stupid rules
* silly rules

##### Translations

Belarusian: праўле́нне n (praŭljénnje), кірава́нне n (kiravánnje), панава́нне n (panavánnje)
Bulgarian: госпо́дство (bg) n (gospódstvo), управле́ние (bg) n (upravlénie)
Egyptian: (wꜣs m)
German: Herrschaft (de) f
Hungarian: uralkodás (hu), uralom (hu)
Latin: regimen n
Malayalam: ഭരണം (ml) (bharaṇaṁ), നിയന്ത്രണം (ml) (niyantraṇaṁ)
Maltese: ħakma f
Manchu: ᡩᠠᠰᠠᠨ (dasan)
Ottoman Turkish: سیاست (siyâset)
Polish: panowanie (pl) n
Russian: правле́ние (ru) n (pravlénije), госпо́дство (ru) n (gospódstvo)
Ukrainian: правлі́ння (uk) n (pravlínnja), панува́ння n (panuvánnja) :

### 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)
* (transitive, stative) To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.
** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XIII, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC: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.
* (slang, intransitive, stative) To excel.
    Synonyms: (slang) rock; see also Thesaurus:excel
    Antonyms: stink, (vulgar slang) suck
    This game rules!
* (intransitive) To decide judicially.
** 2013 June 21, Karen McVeigh, “US rules human genes can't be patented”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 2, page 10: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.
* (transitive) To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.
** 1687, Francis Atterbury, An Answer to Some Considerations on the Spirit of Martin Luther and the Original of the Reformation; […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] [Sheldonian] Theater, →OCLC:That's a ruled case with the school-men.
* (transitive) To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).

##### Conjugation

$^†$ Archaic or obsolete.

##### Derived terms

* cats rule, dogs drool
* forerule
* interrule
* rule against perpetuities
* Rule Britannia
* rule in
* rule off
* rule OK
* rule on
* rule out
* rule the day
* rule the roast
* rule the roost
* rule the school
* rule with a rod of iron
* self-ruling
* the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world

##### Translations

Albanian: balltoj
Arabic: حَكَمَ (ar) (ḥakama)
Egyptian Arabic: حكم (ḥakam)
Armenian: իշխել (hy) (išxel)
Aromanian: vãsilipsescu, amirãripsescu, dumnescu
Azerbaijani: idarə etmək (az)
Belarusian: пра́віць impf (právicʹ), кірава́ць impf (kiravácʹ), панава́ць impf (panavácʹ), улада́рыць impf (uladárycʹ)
Bengali: শাসন করা (śaśon kora)
Bulgarian: управля́вам (bg) impf (upravljávam), вла́ствувам (bg) impf (vlástvuvam)
Catalan: manar (ca), governar (ca), regnar (ca)
Chinese:
Eastern Min: 治 (dê)
Mandarin: 治 (zh) (zhì), 統治 / 统治 (zh) (tǒngzhì), 治理 (zh) (zhìlǐ)
Czech: vládnout (cs) impf
Danish: styre (da), regere (da)
Dutch: regeren (nl)
Egyptian: (ḥqꜣ)
Esperanto: regi
Faroese: stýra
Finnish: säännellä, hallita (fi), johtaa (fi), päättää (fi), vallita (fi)
French: gouverner (fr), régler (fr)
Galician: mandar (gl), gobernar (gl)
German: regieren (de), beherrschen (de)
Gothic: 𐍆𐍂𐌰𐌿𐌾𐌹𐌽𐍉𐌽 (fraujinōn), 𐍅𐌰𐌻𐌳𐌰𐌽 (waldan)
Greek: κυβερνώ (el) (kyvernó), διοικώ (el) (dioikó), διευθύνω (el) (diefthýno)
Ancient: ἄρχω (árkhō), κρατέω (kratéō), ἡγέομαι (hēgéomai)
Hebrew: מָשַׁל (he) (mashál), שָׁלַט (he) (shalát)
Hindi: शासन करना (śāsan karnā)
Hungarian: (reign) ural (hu), (reign) uralkodik (hu), (direct/control) irányít (hu), (lead) vezet (hu), (administrate/manage) igazgat (hu), (settle/regulate) szabályoz (hu)
Icelandic: stjórna, drottna, ráða (is), ríkja
Italian: governare (it)
Japanese: 治める (ja) (おさめる, osameru), 支配する (ja) (しはいする, shihai suru), 統治する (ja) (とうちする, tōchi suru)
Korean: 통치하다 (tongchihada)
Latin: regō, imperō (la)
Latvian: valdīt
Macedonian: управува impf (upravuva)
Malayalam: ഭരിയ്ക്കുക (bhariykkuka)
Neapolitan: cumannà
Norwegian:
Bokmål: styre (no), regjere (no)
Nynorsk: styre, regjere
Occitan: reglar (oc)
Old English: wealdan
Old Turkic: 𐰆𐰞𐰺 (olur-)
Polish: rządzić (pl) impf, panować (pl) impf
Portuguese: reinar (pt), governar (pt)
Romanian: domni (ro)
Russian: пра́вить (ru) impf (právitʹ), вла́ствовать (ru) impf (vlástvovatʹ), руководи́ть (ru) impf (rukovodítʹ), госпо́дствовать (ru) impf (gospódstvovatʹ), управля́ть (ru) impf (upravljátʹ)
Sanskrit: राष्टि (rāṣṭi)
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: у̀прављати impf, вла́дати impf, регули́рати impf or pf
Roman: ùpravljati (sh) impf, vládati (sh) impf, regulírati (sh) impf or pf
Shan: ဢုပ်ႉပိူင်ႇ (shn) (ʼṵ̂p pòeng)
Slovak: vládnuť impf
Slovene: vlādati (sl) impf
Spanish: mandar (es), gobernar (es), regentar (es), regentear (es)
Swahili: sharti (sw)
Swedish: styra (sv), regera (sv), härska (sv)
Telugu: పాలించు (te) (pāliñcu)
Ugaritic: 𐎎𐎍𐎋 (mlk)
Ukrainian: пра́вити impf (právyty), керува́ти impf (keruváty), урядува́ти impf (urjaduváty), управля́ти impf (upravljáty), панува́ти impf (panuváty), владарюва́ти impf (vladarjuváty)
Volapük: reigön (vo), guverön (vo)
Yiddish: קעניגן (kenign), הערשן (hershn), געוועלטיקן (geveltikn)
Zazaki: hakem m, hakim f, soretger f :

### Etymology 3

Related to revel.

#### Noun

rule
* (obsolete) Revelry.

#### Verb

rule (third-person singular simple present rules, present participle ruling, simple past and past participle ruled)
* (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: [ˈrulɛ]

### Noun

rule f
* dative/locative singular of rula

## Igala
### Etymology

Compare with Yoruba sáré

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /rú.lé/

### Verb

rúlé
* to run

## Spanish
### Verb

rule
* inflection of rular:
** first/third-person singular present subjunctive
** third-person singular imperative