decision vs ruling

decision

noun
  • A choice or judgement. 

  • A result arrived at by the judges when there is no clear winner at the end of the contest. 

  • Firmness of conviction. 

  • A win or a loss awarded to a pitcher. 

  • The act of deciding. 

verb
  • To defeat an opponent by a decision of the judges, rather than by a knockout 

ruling

noun
  • An order or a decision on a point of law from someone in authority. 

adj
  • That rules; predominant; chief; reigning; controlling. 

How often have the words decision and ruling occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )