rewrite rule

or rewriting rule

Linguistics.

a phrase-structure rule in a generative grammar, shown as an instruction to replace or rewrite a single symbol, representing a syntactic structure, on the left with one or more symbols, representing the constituents of the structure, on the right, as in S → NP + VP, where S (sentence) is to be replaced with its constituents NP (noun phrase) and VP (verb phrase).

Compare phrase-structure rule.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for rewrite rule

rewrite rule

noun

generative grammar another name for phrase-structure rule

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012