Word.ws English Dictionary

rule-of-thumb

rule-of-thumb is the alternative spelling of rule of thumb.

Meaning of rule of thumb

Noun

rule of thumb (plural rules of thumb)

  1. (idiomatic) A general guideline, rather than a strict rule; an approximate measure or means of reckoning based on experience or common knowledge.
    • The usual rule of thumb says that to calculate when an investment will double, divide 70 by the interest rate.
  2. (attributive, usually hyphenated) Approximated, guesstimated.
    • I made a quick, rule-of-thumb estimate of the manhours required for the job.

Forms of rule-of-thumb

pluralrules-of-thumb

Questions about rule-of-thumb

What is rule-of-thumb the alternative spelling of?
Rule-of-thumb is the alternative spelling of rule of thumb.

Words near rule-of-thumb in the dictionary

  1. rule-breaker
  2. rule-follower
  3. rule-followers
  4. rule-monger
  5. rule-mongers
  6. rule-of-thumb
  7. ruleable
  8. ruleage
  9. rulebook
  10. rulebooks
  11. rulebound

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rule-of-thumb (page history and authors); rule of thumb (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.

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