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PlainSpell

rule

UK /ɹuːl/noun, verb

rule is spelled R-U-L-E. The wrong spelling people search most is rulle: about 30 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 227 of all searches for the word. Rule is a noun meaning “A regulation, law, guideline”. The plural of rule is rules.

How many letters and syllables are in rule?

Letters4: R-U-L-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing87 times per million words; the 1,223rd most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searched1; the most searched, rulle, about 30 Bing searches a month (all of them)
Rhymes with
Same letters

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.

How do you spell rule?

Rule is spelled R-U-L-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 226 of the searches for rule in either form.

rulethe right spelling6,760 searches a month
rullean extra l30 searches a month

Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.

How common is rule?

Rule appears 87 times per million words in written English, the 1,223rd most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce rule?

  • UK /ɹuːl/
  • British /ɹʉwl/
  • British [ɹʊwl]

Rule has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-rule.ogg, En-us-rule.oga, LL-Q1860_(eng)-Pvanp7-rule.wav, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

What rhymes with rule?

7 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as rule from its last stressed vowel (/ul/, British pronunciation):

Spelled with the same letters in another order: lure.

Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).

Forms of rule

  • rules plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • ruling participle, present
  • ruled participle, past, singular, he/she/it, plural

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does rule mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    A regulation, law, guideline.

    All participants must adhere to the rules.

  2. 2

    A regulating principle.

  3. 3

    The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control.

  4. 4

    A normal condition or state of affairs.

    My rule is to rise at six o'clock.

  5. 5

    obsoleteConduct; behaviour.

  6. 6

    An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit.

  7. 7

    A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result.

    a rule for extracting the cube root

  8. 8

    A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure.

  9. 9

    obsoleteRevelry.

verb

  1. 1

    To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over.

  2. 2

    slangTo excel.

    This game rules!

  3. 3

    To decide judicially.

  4. 4

    To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice.

  5. 5

    To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines).

  6. 6

    obsoleteTo revel.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

How do you abbreviate rule?

Wiktionary records one abbreviation of rule: r..

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Rule in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchrègle (regulation), règne (the act of ruling; control), gouverner, régler (to regulate, be in charge of, make decisions…), graduer (to mark with lines)
GermanRegel, Vorschrift (regulation), Herrschaft (the act of ruling; control), herrschen, regieren, beherrschen (to regulate, be in charge of, make decisions…)
Portugueseregra, lei, regulamento (regulation), reinar, governar (to regulate, be in charge of, make decisions…)
Spanishregla, canon (regulation), mandar, regentar, regentear, regir (to regulate, be in charge of, make decisions…)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does rule come from?

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.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after rule