rule of thumb

1. 1.

   a rule or principle that provides guidance to appropriate behavior

   Synonymsguidepostguideline

   Broaderrule

Questions about rule of thumb

What does rule of thumb mean?

rule of thumb means "a rule or principle that provides guidance to appropriate behavior".

What is another word for rule of thumb?

Close synonyms include guidepost, guideline. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is rule of thumb a common word?

rule of thumb is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.