Rule or ruling may refer to:

Human activity

  • Norm (philosophy), a kind of sentence or a reason to act, feel or believe
  • Rule of man and rule of law - the exercise of political or personal control by someone with authority or power
  • Business rule, a rule pertaining to the structure or behavior internal to a business
  • School rule, a rule that is part of school discipline
  • Sport rule, a rule that defines how a sport is played
  • Game rule, a rule that defines how a game is played
  • Morality, a rule or element of a moral code for guiding choices in human behavior
  • Social norm, explicit or implicit rules used within society or by a group
  • Rule of thumb, a principle with broad application that is not intended to be strictly accurate or reliable for every situation
  • Unspoken rule, an assumed rule of human behavior that is not voiced or written down

Science

  • Ruler or "rule"; a distance measuring device
  • Slide rule, a mechanical analog computer
  • Rule of inference or transformation rule, a term in logic for a function which takes premises and returns a conclusion
  • Phrase structure rule or rewrite rule, used in some theories of linguistics
  • "Rule X" elementary cellular automaton, where X is a number between 0-255 characterizing a specific model (e.g. Rule 110)
  • Phonological rule

Law and government

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  • Advance tax ruling, a tool for conforming taxation arrangements
  • Court order, a decision by a court
  • Government
  • In rulemaking by the federal government of the United States, a regulation mandated by Congress, but written or expanded upon by the executive branch
  • Law, which may informally be called a "rule"
  • Military rule, governance by a military body
  • Monastic rule, a collection of precepts that guides the life of monks or nuns in a religious order
  • Procedural law, a ruleset governing the application of laws to cases
  • Rule of law, government based not on arbitrary decisions of officials but on laws

Geography

  • Rule, Arkansas
  • Rule, Texas

Literature

  • The Rules, bestselling self-help book
  • Rules (novel), 2007 Newbery Honor book by Cynthia Lord
  • "The Rulers", a science fiction short story by A. E. van Vogt

Music

  • Ja Rule (born 1976), hip hop artist

Albums

  • R.U.L.E., by Ja Rule, 2004
  • Rule, by Anna Tsuchiya, 2010
  • Rules (The Whitest Boy Alive album), 2009
  • Rules (Alex G album), 2012
  • Rules, by First Blood, 2017
  • Rules!, by Manila Luzon, 2019

Songs

  • "Rule" (Nas song), 2001
  • "Rule"/"Sparkle", a double A-side by Ayumi Hamasaki, 2009
  • "Rule", by X Ambassadors from Orion, 2019
  • "Rules" (Doja Cat song), 2019
  • "Rules" (KMFDM song), 1996
  • "Rules", by Shakira from Laundry Service, 2001
  • "Rules", by 6lack from Free 6lack, 2016
  • "The Rules", by XO-IQ, featured in the television series Make It Pop

Other uses

  • Rule (surname)
  • The Rule (film), a 2014 American documentary
  • Ruler (film), a 2019 India Telugu-language film
  • Pushpa: The Rule, a 2024 Indian period action film
  • Rules: Pyaar Ka Superhit Formula, a 2003 Bollywood film
  • rule: a snippet of code which can perform email filtering
  • Rule (horse) (born 2007), American racehorse
  • Rules (restaurant), upscale English restaurant in London
  • Rules!, a 2014 iOS video game
  • "Rule #1" (Batwoman)
  • Royal University of Law and Economics, a university in Cambodia

See also

  • Debate (parliamentary procedure) for rules governing discussion on the merits of a pending question.