no·men·kla·tu·ra (nō'mən-klä-tŏŏr'ə, nô'myěn-klä-tōōr'ä) n.
The system of patronage to senior positions in the bureaucracy of the Soviet Union and some other Communist states, controlled by committees at various levels of the Communist Party.
(used with a pl. verb) The lists of appointees matching the lists of patronage positions in such a system.
(used with a pl. verb) The appointees to these positions: "The . . . nomenklatura are perceived as draft-immune"(Anthony Arnold).
The stratified, privileged class composed of these appointees.
[Russian, from Latin nōmenclātūra, list of names; see nomenclature.]