Word.ws English Dictionary

exclusionary rule

exclusionary rule noun: a doctrine which requires that evidence obtained as the result of an illegal act on the part of law enforcement personnel (such as a warrantless search, or continued questioning a witness who has invoked the right of counsel) must therefore be excluded from being admitted as evidence in a trial. This rule does not apply in civil proceedings, although statutes sometime specifically provide for exclusion of such evidence.

Noun

exclusionary rule (plural exclusionary rules)

  1. (US) A doctrine which requires that evidence obtained as the result of an illegal act on the part of law enforcement personnel (such as a warrantless search, or continued questioning a witness who has invoked the right of counsel) must therefore be excluded from being admitted as evidence in a trial. This rule does not apply in civil proceedings, although statutes sometime specifically provide for exclusion of such evidence.

Forms of exclusionary rule

pluralexclusionary rules

Questions about exclusionary rule

What does exclusionary rule mean?
Exclusionary rule means a doctrine which requires that evidence obtained as the result of an illegal act on the part of law enforcement personnel (such as a warrantless search, or continued questioning a witness who has invoked the right of counsel) must therefore be excluded from being admitted as evidence in a trial. This rule does not apply in civil proceedings, although statutes sometime specifically provide for exclusion of such evidence.
What part of speech is exclusionary rule?
Exclusionary rule is a noun.
What is the plural of exclusionary rule?
The plural of exclusionary rule is exclusionary rules.

Words near exclusionary rule in the dictionary

  1. exclusion units
  2. exclusion zone
  3. exclusion zones
  4. exclusionarily
  5. exclusionary
  6. exclusionary rule
  7. exclusionary rules
  8. Exclusioner
  9. Exclusioners
  10. exclusionism
  11. exclusionisms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: exclusionary rule (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “exclusionary rule.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/exclusionary_rule. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.