Word.ws English Dictionary

guideline

US/ˈɡaɪdˌlaɪn/

guideline noun: a non-specific rule or principle that provides direction to action or behaviour.

Noun

guideline (plural guidelines)

  1. A non-specific rule or principle that provides direction to action or behaviour.
    • He considered the Ten Commandments more as a guideline than a requirement.
    • In 2009, the Obama Administration released guidelines on enhanced interrogation written in 2003 and 2004 by the CIA Office of Medical Services. ^((OMS).1-3(appendix F)) The OMS guidelines, even in redacted form, and opinions from the US Department of Justice's (DOJ’s) Office of Legal Counsel show...2010 August 4, Leonard S. Rubenstein, JD; Stephen N. Xenakis, MD, “The Ethics of Enhanced Interrogations and Torture: A Reappraisal of the Argument”, in JAMA, volume 304, number 5, American Medical...
    Synonyms:
    rule of thumb
  2. A plan or explanation to guide one in setting standards or determining a course of action.
  3. A light line, used in lettering, to help align the text.

Verb

guideline (third-person singular simple present guidelines, present participle guidelining, simple past and past participle guidelined)

  1. To provide guidelines for.
    • Now we are not just guidelining the work, but implementing it as well. That extra step allows us to fully flesh out every element of the visual language and drive the strategy home.2015, Steven Heller, Veronique Vienne, Becoming a Graphic and Digital Designer, page 60

guideline meaning in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam and Kannada

guideline in Hindi

guideline, rule
दस्तूर dastūr

guideline in Urdu

guideline, rule
دستور dastūr

guideline in Malayalam

non-specific rule or principle
മാർഗരേഖ māṟgarēkha
plan or explanation
മാർഗരേഖ māṟgarēkha

guideline in Kannada

ಕೆಲಸದ ಕಟ್ಟುಪಾಡು, ತಿಟ್ಟ, ಗೊತ್ತುವಳಿ
More languagesFewer languages
guideline in Punjabi
ਗਾਈਡਲਾਈਨ
guideline in Gujarati
દસ્તૂર dastūr
guideline in Arabic
تَوْجِيهَات tawjīhāt
guideline in Indonesian
panduan, garis panduan, pedoman, garis bantu
guideline in Thai
แนวทาง nɛɛo-taang, แนวปฏิบัติ, ตัวชี้นำ
guideline in Vietnamese
hướng dẫn, khuyến cáo, khuyến nghị

Examples of guideline in a sentence

  • These guidelines should be followed in combination with those given last week.
  • Under current guidelines, refined sugar must be at least five times purer than its raw counterpart.
  • Everyone must follow safety guidelines whether you're an apprentice, journeyman, or even master electrician.

All 40 example sentences with guideline

Synonyms of guideline

Forms of guideline

Noun
pluralguidelines
Verb
third-person singular presentguidelines
present participleguidelining
past participleguidelined
pastguidelined

Plural of guideline: guidelines

Origin of guideline

From guide + line.

Words formed from guideline

Questions about guideline

What does guideline mean?
Guideline means a non-specific rule or principle that provides direction to action or behaviour.
What is guideline in Hindi?
Guideline in Hindi is दस्तूर (dastūr). See Guideline meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is guideline?
Guideline can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce guideline?
Guideline is pronounced /ˈɡaɪdˌlaɪn/ (US).
What is the plural of guideline?
The plural of guideline is guidelines.

Words near guideline in the dictionary

  1. guideless
  2. guidelessness
  3. guidelight
  4. guidelights
  5. guidelike
  6. guideline
  7. guidelined
  8. guidelineless
  9. guidelines
  10. guidelining
  11. guideparent

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: guideline (page history and authors); दस्तूर (Hindi) (page history and authors); دستور (Urdu) (page history and authors); guideline (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); guideline (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); દસ્તૂર (Gujarati) (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-guideline.wav.

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