as a rule
IdiomsExample Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Reporters are not police informants, we don't as a rule pass on information.
From BBC • Mar. 1, 2026
He provides a blow-by-blow account of the days leading up to the ruling’s publication, including internal communications between the judges that, as a rule, are never shared with the public.
From Slate • Nov. 20, 2025
Or to honesty, as a rule, though he insists that this account of his disastrous Venetian sojourn is genuine.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 9, 2025
However, the causal principle of cause and effect remains closed to machines as a rule; they cannot address the question of why.
From Science Daily • Apr. 25, 2024
Truly, he is not mean or cross as a rule, as I say, just every now and again, when he’s been away at his club and then comes home late at night.
From "The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling" by Maryrose Wood
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
