Noun

(uncountable) The state of being formal.

Something said or done as a matter of form.

A customary ritual without new or unique meaning.

A specific requirement for obtaining a legal status, conducting a transaction, etc.

Noun

(uncountable)   The act of regulating or the condition of being regulated.

(countable)   A law or administrative rule, issued by an organization, used to guide or prescribe the conduct of members of that organization.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-05-17

, author=George Monbiot, authorlink=George Monbiot , title=Money just makes the rich suffer , volume=188, issue=23, page=19 , magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) citation , passage=In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]  The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra-wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.}}

* Army regulations state a soldier AWOL over 30 days is a deserter.

(European Union law) A form of legislative act which is self-effecting, and requires no further intervention by the Member States to become law.

(lb) Mechanism controlling DNA transcription.

(lb) Physiological process which consists in maintaining homoeostasis.