adj, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   An order or a decision on a point of law from someone in authority.

   "These orders are now cancelled as a result of the Minister's ruling."

2. 2
   the reason for a court's judgment (as opposed to the decision itself) wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   present participle and gerund of rule form-of, gerund, participle, present

Adjective

1. 1
   That rules; predominant; chief; reigning; controlling.

   "the ruling monarch"

Adjective

1. 1
   exercising power or authority wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms

reigningin powerabsoluteactactionappointment

Example

More examples

"His wife's second cousin was a member of the Jewish ruling council."

Etymology

By surface analysis, rule + -ing.

Related phrases

letter rulingpreliminary rulingruling classruling graderuling gradientruling penruling planetself-ruling

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.