rule

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An instruction that says what you are or are not allowed to do.

   All players must follow the rules of the game.

2. 2
   noun

   The period during which a king, queen, or government holds power.

   The country prospered during her rule.

3. 3
   verb

   To have official power over a country or its people.

   The emperor ruled the empire for forty years.

4. 4
   verb

   To make an official decision, especially in court.

   The judge ruled that the company had broken the law.

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Rule is recorded from Middle English and goes back to Latin regula, “straight stick,” and beyond that to regere, “to rule.” The older sense of a measuring stick remains in expressions such as “run the rule over” and “rule of thumb.”

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.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary