Regulær

Regulär is an adjective used in German and Swedish to denote conformity with rules, normality, or standardization. The term derives from Latin regula, “rule,” through regulāris in Latin and spread into German and other languages via legal and technical vocabulary. In German, regulär is typically spelled with an umlaut (regulär) and is used to describe things that follow established rules or occur on a normal schedule, as in reguläre Arbeitszeiten (regular working hours), regulärer Busverkehr (regular bus service), or reguläres Verfahren (standard procedure). In formal language contexts it also appears in technical terms such as reguläre Sprache (regular language) and regulärer Ausdruck (regular expression).

In computing and formal linguistics, regulär denotes pattern-based or rule-governed constructs. A regulärer Ausdruck is a regular expression, a formal pattern used to match strings in text processing. A reguläre Sprache refers to a regular language, a class of formal languages that can be described by finite automata or regular expressions. These uses are common in German-language technical literature and documentation.

In Swedish, reguljär is used with a similar meaning to designate something normal or standard, particularly in technical or formal contexts. In everyday Swedish, words like regelbunden or normal are more commonly used for “regular.” The adjective regulär/reguljär thus tends to appear more in specialized, professional, or academic language.

Etymology traces regulär to Latin regula, with the meaning shifting to “according to rule” or “standard” in modern German and Swedish usage.