rule vs stipulation

rule

noun
  • The act of ruling; administration of law; government; empire; authority; control. 

  • A determinate method prescribed for performing any operation and producing a certain result. 

  • A regulating principle. 

  • A ruler; device for measuring, a straightedge, a measure. 

  • A normal condition or state of affairs. 

  • A regulation, law, guideline. 

  • An order regulating the practice of the courts, or an order made between parties to an action or a suit. 

  • A straight line (continuous mark, as made by a pen or the like), especially one lying across a paper as a guide for writing. 

verb
  • To establish or settle by, or as by, a rule; to fix by universal or general consent, or by common practice. 

  • To regulate, be in charge of, make decisions for, reign over. 

  • To decide judicially. 

  • To mark (paper or the like) with rules (lines). 

  • To excel. 

stipulation

noun
  • The act of stipulating; a contracting or bargaining; an agreement. 

  • Something that is stated or stipulated as a condition of an agreement. 

  • The situation, arrangement, and structure of the stipules. 

  • A goal to be achieved in a chess problem; for example, to checkmate Black within a specified number of moves. 

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