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Guideline vs Law - What's the difference?

guideline | law |

As nouns the difference between guideline and law

is that guideline is a non-specific rule or principle that provides direction to action or behaviour while law is the body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities.

As an interjection law is

an exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.

As a proper noun Law is

{{surname|patronymic|from=given names}.

guideline

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A non-specific rule or principle that provides direction to action or behaviour.
  • He considered the Ten Commandments more a guideline than a requirement.
  • A plan or explanation to guide one in setting standards or determining a course of action.
  • A light line, used in lettering, to help align the text.
  • Synonyms

    * (non-specific rule) rule of thumb * (plan or explanation) rule of thumb

    law

    English

    (wikipedia law)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) lawe, and gesetnes. More at (l).

    Noun

  • (lb) The body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities.
  • :
  • *, chapter=22
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=Not unnaturally, “Auntie” took this communication in bad part.
  • A particular such rule.
  • :
  • *
  • *:As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish,I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
  • (lb) A written or understood rule that concerns behaviours and their consequences. Laws are usually associated with mores.
  • :
  • A well-established, observed physical characteristic or behavior of nature. The word is used to simply identify "what happens," without implying any explanatory mechanism or causation. Compare to theory.
  • :
  • (lb) A statement that is true under specified conditions.
  • A category of English "common law" petitions that request monetary relief, as opposed to relief in forms other than a monetary judgment; compare to "equity".
  • (lb) One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the MCC.
  • The police.
  • :
  • (lb) One of the two metaphysical forces of the world in some fantasy settings, as opposed to chaos.
  • An oath, as in the presence of a court. See wager of law.
  • Hyponyms
    * sharia law
    Derived terms
    * above the law * against the law * a law unto oneself * * Avogadro’s law * Beer-Lambert law * Boyle’s law * bylaw * canon law * Charles’ law * civil law * common law * contract law * corn laws * Coulomb’s law * criminal law * de Morgan’s laws * employment law * family law * Faraday’s laws * federal law * feudal law * Fourier’s law * Gauss’s law * Graham’s law * Gresham’s law * Henry’s law * Hooke’s law * Hubble’s law * international law * into law * Kepler’s laws of planetary motion * Kerchoff’s laws * law and order * lawful * lawgiver * lawlike * law lord * lawmaker, law-maker * law of cosines * law of large numbers * law of sines * law of small numbers * law of tangents * law of the land * law of the tongue * lay down the law * long arm of the law * lynch law * martial law * Moore’s law * Murphy's law * natural law * Newton’s law of cooling * Newton’s law of gravitation * Newton’s laws of motion * Ohm’s law * physical law * power law * Poiseuille’s law * possession is nine points of the law * property law * Roman law * statuate (statute)+law=statuate law (US) * state law * statute law (Commonwealth English) * Stefan-Boltzmann law * Stokes’ law * sus law * take the law into one’s own hands * the law is an ass * three laws of robotics * unwritten law * Zipf’s law

    See also

    * * *

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) . Also spelled low.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) a tumulus of stones
  • a hill
  • * 1892 , Robert Louis Stevenson, Across the Plains
  • You might climb the Law [...] and behold the face of many counties.

    Etymology 3

    Compare (la).

    Interjection

    (en interjection)
  • (dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.
  • References

    Etymology] in [[:w:da:ODS, ODS]

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