"dos and don'ts" meaning in English

See dos and don'ts in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˌduːz‿n̩ ˈdəʊnts/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˌduz‿n̩ ˈdoʊnts/ [General-American] Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-dos and don'ts.wav Forms: do's and don'ts [alternative], do's and don't's [alternative]
Rhymes: -əʊnts Etymology: From dos (“plural of do (“something that can or should be done”)”) + and + don’ts (“plural of don’t (“something that must or should not be done”)”). Etymology templates: {{sup|1}} ¹ Head templates: {{en-noun|p|head=dos and don'ts}} dos and don'ts pl (plural only)
  1. A set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation; a set of guidelines or rules that one has to or ought to follow. Tags: plural, plural-only Translations (set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation): ohjeet (english: guidelines) [plural] (Finnish), säännöt (english: rules) [plural] (Finnish), რა უნდა გააკეთოთ და რა არ უნდა გააკეთოთ (ra unda gaaḳetot da ra ar unda gaaḳetot) (Georgian), რისი გაკეთება შეიძლება და რისი გაკეთება არ შეიძლება (risi gaḳeteba šeiʒleba da risi gaḳeteba ar šeiʒleba) (Georgian), როგორ უნდა მოიქცეთ და როგორ არ უნდა მოიქცეთ (rogor unda moikcet da rogor ar unda moikcet) (Georgian), ami kötelező és ami tilos (Hungarian), amit szabad és amit nem (Hungarian), viselkedési szabályok (Hungarian), poželjno i nepoželjno [Roman, neuter] (Serbo-Croatian), decálogo [informal, masculine] (Spanish)

Alternative forms

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  "etymology_text": "From dos (“plural of do (“something that can or should be done”)”) + and + don’ts (“plural of don’t (“something that must or should not be done”)”).",
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        "A set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation; a set of guidelines or rules that one has to or ought to follow."
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          "do",
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          "guideline",
          "guideline"
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          "rules",
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          "code": "fi",
          "english": "guidelines",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "tags": [
            "plural"
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          "code": "fi",
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          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "ra unda gaaḳetot da ra ar unda gaaḳetot",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "word": "რა უნდა გააკეთოთ და რა არ უნდა გააკეთოთ"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "risi gaḳeteba šeiʒleba da risi gaḳeteba ar šeiʒleba",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "word": "რისი გაკეთება შეიძლება და რისი გაკეთება არ შეიძლება"
        },
        {
          "code": "ka",
          "lang": "Georgian",
          "roman": "rogor unda moikcet da rogor ar unda moikcet",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "word": "როგორ უნდა მოიქცეთ და როგორ არ უნდა მოიქცეთ"
        },
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          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "word": "ami kötelező és ami tilos"
        },
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          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "word": "amit szabad és amit nem"
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          "code": "hu",
          "lang": "Hungarian",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "word": "viselkedési szabályok"
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          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
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          ],
          "word": "poželjno i nepoželjno"
        },
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          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
          "tags": [
            "informal",
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "decálogo"
        }
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        "A set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation; a set of guidelines or rules that one has to or ought to follow."
      ],
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      "code": "fi",
      "english": "guidelines",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "ohjeet"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "english": "rules",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ],
      "word": "säännöt"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "ra unda gaaḳetot da ra ar unda gaaḳetot",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "word": "რა უნდა გააკეთოთ და რა არ უნდა გააკეთოთ"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "risi gaḳeteba šeiʒleba da risi gaḳeteba ar šeiʒleba",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "word": "რისი გაკეთება შეიძლება და რისი გაკეთება არ შეიძლება"
    },
    {
      "code": "ka",
      "lang": "Georgian",
      "roman": "rogor unda moikcet da rogor ar unda moikcet",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "word": "როგორ უნდა მოიქცეთ და როგორ არ უნდა მოიქცეთ"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "word": "ami kötelező és ami tilos"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "word": "amit szabad és amit nem"
    },
    {
      "code": "hu",
      "lang": "Hungarian",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "word": "viselkedési szabályok"
    },
    {
      "code": "sh",
      "lang": "Serbo-Croatian",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "tags": [
        "Roman",
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "poželjno i nepoželjno"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "set of things that one should do or not do in a particular situation",
      "tags": [
        "informal",
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "decálogo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "dos and don'ts"
}

Download raw JSONL data for dos and don'ts meaning in English (4.2kB)

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  "path": [
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  ],
  "section": "English",
  "subsection": "noun",
  "title": "dos and don'ts",
  "trace": ""
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-08 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (51d164f and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.