Regulatory

How to spell regulatory

10 letters · 5 syllables

How to pronounce regulatory

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does regulatory mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the control or supervision of an activity by rules, laws, or an official body.

Regulatory in a sentence

• The bank failed to meet the new regulatory requirements.

• A regulatory body oversees safety standards across the industry.

Where does regulatory come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin noun regula, which literally meant a straight stick or ruler and, by extension, a rule or standard to measure against. From regula came the verb regulare, 'to control by rule', which gave Latin regulatus and eventually the English verb 'regulate' in the early 1600s. The adjective 'regulatory' was formed on that base with the suffix -ory, meaning 'serving to' or 'relating to', and it became common in the 1800s as governments built bodies to oversee industry and trade. The same regula root also underlies everyday words like 'rule', 'regular', and 'regiment', all sharing the idea of keeping things in line. The spelling trap sits in the quiet middle: writers must remember the -ula- before the -tory, and resist collapsing the unstressed vowels.

How the word is built

• regul- (from regula: rule, straight stick)
• -at- (verb-forming)
• -ory (adjective suffix: relating to)