guardrail
noun
guard·rail
ˈgärd-ˌrāl 
: a railing guarding usually against danger
especially
: a barrier placed along the edge of a highway at dangerous points
Examples of guardrail in a Sentence
the car ran off the road, but fortunately only hit the guardrail
Recent Examples on the Web
Since taking office in October 2024, President Prabowo Subianto has weakened the institutional guardrails that once constrained fiscal expansion and protected central‑bank independence.
—
William Pesek, Forbes.com, 11 June 2026
As a result, Anthropic released Fable 5 with a strict set of guardrails preventing it from answering a range of questions about cybersecurity or biology.
—Jared Perlo, NBC news, 11 June 2026
But back then, there were just no guardrails, so these guys could be wildly inventive.
—Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 11 June 2026
Pierce made a point of emphasizing that none of this happens outside the platform’s governance guardrails, which is a key distinction from simply feeding data into a public large language model.
—Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 10 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for guardrail
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
William Pesek, Forbes.com, 11 June 2026
As a result, Anthropic released Fable 5 with a strict set of guardrails preventing it from answering a range of questions about cybersecurity or biology.
—Jared Perlo, NBC news, 11 June 2026
But back then, there were just no guardrails, so these guys could be wildly inventive.
—Chris Murphy, Vanity Fair, 11 June 2026
Pierce made a point of emphasizing that none of this happens outside the platform’s governance guardrails, which is a key distinction from simply feeding data into a public large language model.
—Sheryl Estrada, Fortune, 10 June 2026
See All Example Sentences for guardrail
Cite this Entry
“Guardrail.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/guardrail. Accessed 15 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
guardrail
noun
guard·rail
ˈgär-ˌdrāl
: a protective railing placed along dangerous areas (as of a road)
Love words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
