Word
Kana: ほうそく Romaji: housoku Level: N2

法則

Meaning in English

law, rule

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Dictionary

Word context

What it means

法則 denotes a natural or general law or principle that governs patterns or regularities in nature, society, or a system; it is used to describe consistent relationships that can be observed, tested, and used to predict outcomes.

Main meanings

  • Natural law or universal principle that governs phenomena in nature or a system.
  • A rule, standard, or regularity used to predict or explain outcomes in a field such as physics, biology, sociology, or engineering.
  • A guiding principle or axiom used in theory or discussion, sometimes used in everyday language to indicate expected patterns.

How to use it

Used in formal, scientific, and philosophical contexts to refer to invariant laws or principles. It is common in physics, chemistry, biology, and mathematics to describe regularities, as well as in social sciences to refer to established norms; in everyday language, it's less common and often replaced by 規則 or ルール depending on nuance.

Variants and close terms

  • 原理 — principle (genri)
  • 規則 — rule/regulation (kisoku)
  • 自然法則 — natural law (shizen hōsoku)

Composition

  • 法: law, method, or principle; used in compounds to denote formal rules or statutes.
  • 則: rule, standard, or principle; together they express the concept of a governing rule or law.

Word class

noun (名詞)

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