Definition of "rule" []

• Governing power or its possession or use; authority. (noun)
• The duration of such power. (noun)
• An authoritative, prescribed direction for conduct, especially one of the regulations governing procedure in a legislative body or a regulation observed by the players in a game, sport, or contest. (noun)
• The body of regulations prescribed by the founder of a religious order for governing the conduct of its members. (noun)
• A usual, customary, or generalized course of action or behavior: "The rule of life in the defense bar ordinarily is to go along and get along” ( Scott Turow). (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Now note that the rule of stare decisis is a _rule of law_."
• "But if the exceptions to the rule of promise keeping are all those cases where keeping a the promise is less than optimal, then the ˜rule™ is no more than a rule of thumb, and the actual principle governing decisions on promise-keeping is the principle of maximal utility."
• "And that in the church they are vested with rule appears not only by their name of elders, which when applied to officers, imports rule, authority, &c., as hath been said; but also by the adjunct participle _that rule_, or"