Definition of law:

part of speech: noun

A rule of action imposed by some authority, or by the supreme power of a state; a statute; a rule of direction; a settled principle; a rule or axiom of science.

Usage examples:

• Whatever your captain says is law Pauline Lester in "Marjorie Dean High School Freshman".

• If this were the object of the law it would probably explain much more. G. A. Chadwick in "The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Exodus".

• Law in its ideal, is the statement of a principle of right in mandatory form, by competent authority, with adequate penalty for disobedience; in common use, the term is applied to any legislative act, however imperfect or unjust. Command and commandment are personal and particular; as, the commands of a parent; the ten commandments. An edict is the act of an absolute sovereign or other authority; we speak of the edict of an emperor, the decree of a court. A mandate is specific, for an occasion or a purpose; a superior court issues its mandate to an inferior court to send up its records. Statute is the recognized legal term for a specific law enactment is the more vague and general expression. We speak of algebraic or chemical formulas, municipal ordinances, military orders, army regulations, ecclesiastical canons, the rules of a business house. Law is often used, also, for a recognized principle, whose violation is attended with injury or loss that acts like a penalty; as, the laws of business; the laws of nature. In more strictly scientific use, a natural law is simply a recognized system of sequences or relations; as, Kepler's laws of planetary distances. A code is a system of laws; jurisprudence is the science of law or a system of laws scientifically considered, classed, and interpreted; legislation, primarily the act of legislating, denotes also the body of statutes enacted by a legislative body. An economy ( Gr. oikonomia, primarily the management of a house) is any comprehensive system of administration; as, domestic economy; but the word is extended to the administration or government of a state or people, signifying a body of laws and regulations, with the entire system, political or religious, especially the latter, of which they form a part; as, the code of Draco, Roman jurisprudence, British legislation, the Mosaic economy. Law is also used as a collective noun for a system of laws or recognized rules or regulations, including not only all special laws, but the principles on which they are based. The Mosaic economy is known also as the Mosaic law and we speak of the English common law or the law of nations. Polity ( Gr. politeia, from polis, a city) signifies the form, constitution, or method of government of a nation, state, church, or other institution; in usage it differs from economy as applying rather to the system, while economy applies especially to method, or to the system as administered; an economy might be termed a polity considered with especial reference to its practical administration, hence commonly with special reference to details or particulars, while polity has more reference to broad principles. in "".

• Did not Moses give you the law and yet none of you doeth the law Marcus Dods in "The Expositor's Bible: The Gospel of St. John, Vol. I".