English-Dutch translations for rule of thumb

• vuistregel
  Dat is een vuistregel voor alle nieuwe technologieën. This is the rule of thumb for all new technology.
  Het schijnt dat daarvoor een vuistregel geldt. It appears that there is a rule of thumb for this purpose.
  Als vuistregel mogen we aannemen dat geldt hoe kleiner het bedrijf hoe zwaarder de relatieve last is van de administratieve kosten. As a rule of thumb we can assume that the smaller the enterprise, the heavier the relative burden of administrative costs.

Definition of rule of thumb

• A general guideline, rather than a strict rule; an approximate measure or means of reckoning based on experience or common knowledge
• Approximated, guesstimated

Examples

• The usual rule of thumb says that to calculate when an investment will double, divide 70 by the interest rate.
• I made a quick, rule-of-thumb estimate of the manhours required for the job.

Related words

• rule of the road
• rule of the law
• rule of three
• rules of the road
• rules of the game
• to rule something off