The body of binding rules and regulations, customs, and standards established in a community by its legislative and judicial authorities. • The body of such rules that pertain to a particular topic. • Common law, as contrasted with equity. • A binding regulation or custom established in a community in this way. • A rule, such as: • Any rule that must or should be obeyed, concerning behaviours and their consequences. (Compare mores.) • A rule or principle regarding the construction of language or art. • A statement (in physics, etc) of an (observed, established) order or sequence or relationship of phenomena which is invariable under certain conditions. (Compare theory.) • A statement (of relation) that is true under specified conditions; a mathematical or logical rule. • Any statement of the relation of acts and conditions to their consequences. • A sound law; a regular change in the pronunciation of a language. • One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the its (former) governing body, the MCC. • The control and order brought about by the observance of such rules. • A person or group that act(s) with authority to uphold such rules and order (for example, one or more police officers). • The profession that deals with such rules (as lawyers, judges, police officers, etc). • Jurisprudence, the field of knowledge which encompasses these rules. • Litigation; legal action (as a means of maintaining or restoring order, redressing wrongs, etc.). • An allowance of distance or time (a head start) given to a weaker (human or animal) competitor in a race, to make the race more fair. • A mode of operation of the flight controls of a fly-by-wire aircraft. • One of two metaphysical forces ruling the world in some fantasy settings, also called order, and opposed to chaos. • An oath sworn before a court, especially disclaiming a debt. (Chiefly in the phrases “wager of law”, “wage one's law”, “perform one's law”, “lose one's law”.)