1
as in certain
having been established and usually not subject to change
hard-and-fast rules that governed the corporate environment in those days included strictures regarding office dress that were rigidly enforced
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in unchangeable
not capable of changing or being changed
hard-and-fast beliefs that are the rock-solid foundation of their religion
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of hard-and-fast
Final Thoughts Like most decision-making in business, there are no hard-and-fast rules.
—
Lisa Zeiderman, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025
Some of this came about due to the emergence of the internet and a hard-and-fast push to boost the conference and interactive space of SXSW.
—Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 30 July 2025
Because no hard-and-fast medical test exists for ME/CFS, the condition is sometimes considered more of a psychological than physical ailment.
—New Atlas, 25 July 2025
One hard-and-fast requirement for playability is at least 16GB of unified RAM.
—Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for hard-and-fast
Lisa Zeiderman, Forbes.com, 1 Aug. 2025
Some of this came about due to the emergence of the internet and a hard-and-fast push to boost the conference and interactive space of SXSW.
—Michael Barnes, Austin American Statesman, 30 July 2025
Because no hard-and-fast medical test exists for ME/CFS, the condition is sometimes considered more of a psychological than physical ailment.
—New Atlas, 25 July 2025
One hard-and-fast requirement for playability is at least 16GB of unified RAM.
—Andrew Cunningham, ArsTechnica, 16 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for hard-and-fast
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hard-and-fast
Adjective
-
While certain periods of 19th-century Austin could be considered part of the Wild West, the past decades here have seen the casualty count from gun violence in Austin and statewide grow to previously unimaginable levels.—
Michael Barnes,
Austin American Statesman,
7 Mar. 2026
-
Do certain members need to divest if their goals are fundamentally misaligned?—
Belinda G. Schwartz,
Fortune,
7 Mar. 2026
Adjective
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Privacy advocates have warned about the risks of identity verification like World’s, as iris scans are unchangeable and could cause all manner of havoc in the wrong hands.—
Danielle Chemtob,
Forbes.com,
29 Jan. 2026
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On his first day back in office, Trump signed an executive order proclaiming that the U.S. recognizes only two unchangeable sexes, male and female.—
Zach Schonfeld,
The Hill,
13 Jan. 2026
Adjective
-
With a high, stable energy supply, the ship could support a larger number of these power-hungry containers, giving operators greater flexibility to handle cargo demand.—
Sujita Sinha,
Interesting Engineering,
9 Mar. 2026
-
Obituaries, property records and data broker profiles can quietly reveal life changes that make someone appear financially stable yet emotionally vulnerable.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
8 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
When a soccer player runs downfield in anticipation of the ball being passed to them, the goal is to have the ball arrive where the player will be in the future, but that mental calculation is familiar to us, intuitively, because the soccer field itself is static and unchanging.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
25 Feb. 2026
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Corporate earnings are on pace to close out a fifth straight quarter of double-digit percentage gains, a positive but unchanging pace that clearly is now being fully anticipated by investors before the reports hit.—
Michael Santoli,
CNBC,
23 Feb. 2026
Adjective
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Vanderbilt got as close as 11 points in the final frame, but Ole Miss was able to hold off the Commodores’ comeback bid.—
Danny Davis,
Austin American Statesman,
7 Mar. 2026
-
Not making enough stops defensively to thwart the Heat while subsequently only hitting 7 of 21 attempts in the final 12 minutes doomed the Hornets.—
Roderick Boone,
Charlotte Observer,
7 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
From the Constitutional Revolution through the Mossadegh era and the 1979 upheaval, senior clerics have displayed a deeper commitment to being on the winning side than to any fixed political principle.—
Bobby Ghosh,
Time,
5 Mar. 2026
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The spline structure inside the nuts, the non-fixed gripping posture, and interference from magnetic forces significantly increased assembly complexity.—
Atharva Gosavi,
Interesting Engineering,
3 Mar. 2026
Adjective
-
Official statistics are hard to come by, but town residents — several of whom asked to be identified by only first names to protect their safety — estimated around 80 cars were set aflame in a municipality of just 20,000 people.—
Senior Editor,
Los Angeles Times,
6 Mar. 2026
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In the absence of hard data, the kind that become available years or decades after a war, the temptation is to reach for analogies or proverbial wisdom, or any of the other heuristic shortcuts that the psychologist Daniel Kahneman thoroughly described in his book Thinking, Fast and Slow.—
Eliot A. Cohen,
The Atlantic,
6 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Hard-and-fast.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hard-and-fast. Accessed 14 Mar. 2026.
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