ruling
rulings; rulingly
The official decision a judge makes is a ruling. You can also use this word as an adjective, to describe something or someone in charge, like a ruling political party.
The group with political power in a country might be described as the ruling coalition, and the government itself could be called the ruling authority. When it's a noun, the word ruling has a legal meaning: it's the court's opinion. This definition dates from the 1550s, from the verb rule, from its Latin root regula, "straight stick or bar."
Definitions of ruling
-
exercising power or authority
-
the reason for a court's judgment (as opposed to the decision itself)
-
synonyms:
opinion
-
examples:
-
Bakke decision
a ruling by the Supreme Court on affirmative action; the Court ruled in 1978 that medical schools are entitled to consider race as a factor in their admission policy
-
types:
-
fatwa
a ruling on a point of Islamic law that is given by a recognized authority
-
type of:
-
judgement, judgment, judicial decision
(law) the determination by a court of competent jurisdiction on matters submitted to it
-
Bakke decision
DISCLAIMER: These example sentences appear in various news sources and books to reflect the usage of the word ‘ruling'.
Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Vocabulary.com or its editors.
Send us feedback
Word Family
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Look up ruling for the last time
Close your vocabulary gaps with personalized learning that focuses on teaching the words you need to know.
