Noun

(en noun)

A fundamental principle or skill, especially in a field of learning (often in the plural).

We learn the rudiments of thermodynamics next week.

* Shakespeare

This boy is forest-born, / And hath been tutored in the rudiments / Of many desperate studies.

Something in an undeveloped form (often in the plural).

I have the rudiments of an escape plan.

* Milton

But I will bring thee where thou soon shalt quit / Those rudiments , and see before thine eyes / The monarchies of the earth.

* I. Taylor

The single leaf is the rudiment of beauty in landscape.

(biology) A body part that no longer has a function

(music) In percussion, one of a selection of basic drum patterns learned as an exercise.

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.