guardrail

noun

guard·​rail ˈgärd-ˌrāl 

variants or less commonly guard rail

plural guardrails also guard rails

1

: a railing that protects (as by preventing people from falling)

The sidewalk … is separated from the heavily treed ravine by a guardrail.

—Jack Lakey

especially : a barrier placed along the edge of a highway at dangerous points

The car swerved and hit a guardrail.

2

guardrails or less commonly guard rails plural : protections against something undesirable : safeguards

Whatever the reasons for defaults, housing observers are most concerned that the guardrails put in place after the housing crisis are no longer there to help.

—Andrea Riquier

often, specifically : the methods, policies, and software used to prevent an artificial intelligence model from engaging in harmful actions (such as providing false information or exposing sensitive data)

Microsoft has built safety guardrails into Copilot that usually prevent the AI assistant from sending data to a bad actor.

—Matt Binder

… called the model a national security risk after being notified of a jailbreak, or a way to get around its internal guardrails.

—Hadras Gold

The general idea is to roll out AI tools with guardrails—that is, rules, policies and constraints.

—Thad Rueter

Synonyms of guardrail

• railing
• rail

Examples of guardrail in a Sentence

the car ran off the road, but fortunately only hit the guardrail

Recent Examples on the Web

Health, nutrition and family engagement have long been core values and some fear that without guardrails the program will falter. — Kate Sequeira, Los Angeles Times, 24 Sep. 2026

The need for guardrails in the college game is precisely why Congress has become a battleground for paying college athletes, culminating in the Save College Sports Act which has been hotly debated on both sides of the political aisle. — Austin Perry Outkick, FOXNews.com, 23 Sep. 2026

So the problem is ultimately about bringing the appropriate amount of trust into AI while maintaining the governance and guardrails required for each workflow. — Kousik Rajendran, Forbes.com, 22 Sep. 2026

Or any guardrails limiting the number of positions that will inevitably be cut when Paramount merges Paramount+ with HBO Max as the company had said. — Nellie Andreeva, Deadline, 21 Sep. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1860, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for guardrail

• airmail
• assail
• avail
• bewail
• blackmail
• cattail
• cocktail
• curtail
• derail
• detail
• dovetail
• email

Kids Definition

guardrail

noun

guard·​rail ˈgär-ˌdrāl 

: a protective railing placed along dangerous areas (as of a road)