Ruled

Part of speech: verb

Pronunciation: /ɹuːld/

Definitions

1. Governed by an established authority or guidelines
2. Subject to the direction or dominance of a governing body or leader
3. Managed or directed by a person or group in charge ; marked with straight, parallel lines to guide writing or drawing

Etymology: The past tense "ruled" is simply the regular form of "rule," so the history worth telling belongs to the verb itself. Its ancestor is the Latin "regula," meaning a straight stick or bar, the kind used to draw a line. That physical sense carries straight into the modern word: a ruler is still a straight edge for drawing lines, and "rule" once meant the same thing before it came to mean a principle or a guideline. The verb grew from the same Latin stock in two steps. Middle English took the noun "reule" from Old French "riule," which came from "regula," and a separate verb "reulen" came from Old French "riuler," which was based on the Latin "regulāre," "to regulate." The verb's sense of governing and exercising authority developed from that idea of keeping things straight and in line, the same notion behind the Latin verb "regō," "to direct or govern."

Synonyms: governed, controlled, managed, directed, administered

Antonyms: free, liberated, uncontrolled, independent, self-governing