Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Relating to or involving outward form or structure, often in contrast to content or meaning.
- adjective Being or relating to essential form or constitution.
- adjective Following or being in accord with accepted or prescribed forms, conventions, or regulations.
- adjective Characterized by strict or meticulous observation of forms; methodical.
- adjective Stiffly ceremonious.
- adjective Characterized by technical or polysyllabic vocabulary, complex sentence structure, and explicit transitions; not colloquial or informal.
- adjective Having the outward appearance but lacking in substance.
- noun Something, such as a gown or social affair, that is formal in nature.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Implicit; not active; latent; virtual.
- noun A trade-name for formaldehyde.
- According to form, rule, or established order; according to the rules of law or custom; systematic; regular; legal.
- Characterized by or made or done in strict or undue conformity to legal or conventional rules; notably conventional.
- Observing or requiring strict observance of the rules of law, custom, or etiquette; strictly ceremonious; precise: exact to affectation; punctilious.
- Regular or methodical in action.
- Having conformity with the rules of art; scholastic; theoretical; also, rhetorical; academical; expressed in artificial language.
- Relating to form merely, not to the substance or matter; having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; outward: as, a formal defect; formal duty; formal worship.
- Embodied in a form; personified. The allusion in the extract is to the character of the Vice who, under many aliases, was an attendant on the Devil in the old moralities. See
iniquity and vice. - Pertaining to or regarding the shape and appearance of a living being; characteristic; proper; sane.
- Pertaining to form, in sense 8, especially in the Aristotelian use, opposed to materiȧl; essential; express. See phrases below.
- Pertaining to those elements of cognition which according to Kant have their origin in the nature of the mind itself; universal and necessary.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Chem.) See
methylal . - adjective Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing.
- adjective Belonging to the constitution of a thing, as distinguished from the matter composing it; having the power of making a thing what it is; constituent; essential; pertaining to or depending on the forms, so called, of the human intellect.
- adjective Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express.
- adjective Devoted to, or done in accordance with, forms or rules; punctilious; regular; orderly; methodical; of a prescribed form; exact; prim; stiff; ceremonious.
- adjective Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external
- adjective Dependent in form; conventional.
- adjective obsolete Sound; normal.
- adjective See under
Cause .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective being in accord with established
forms - adjective
official - adjective relating to the
form orstructure of something - adjective
ceremonial - adjective horticulture
organized ;well -structured andplanned - noun
formalin - noun an evening gown
- noun an event with a formal dress code
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective characteristic of or befitting a person in authority
- adjective logically deductive
- noun a gown for evening wear
- adjective represented in simplified or symbolic form
- noun a lavish dance requiring formal attire
- adjective (of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional standards of correctness and without casual, contracted, and colloquial forms
- adjective being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress)
- adjective refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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As a formal theory (in Husserl's sense of ˜formal™, i.e., as opposed to ˜material™) mereology is simply an attempt to lay down the general principles underlying the relationships between an entity and its constituent parts, whatever the nature of the entity, just as set theory is an attempt to lay down the principles underlying the relationships between a set and its members.
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In this book, the term formal thought disorder is used to refer to the aphasialike utterances of patients.
The Neuropsychiatric Guide to Modern Everyday Psychiatry Michael Alan Taylor 1993
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But so keen for symmetry, for all the term formal beauty implies, is Chopin, that seldom does his morbidity madden, his voluptuousness poison.
Chopin : the Man and His Music James Huneker 1890
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Well, with China, we have a, what we call formal bilaterals, which is just I sit down with the Chinese Foreign Minister, there are officials there, there are note takers and record keepers; it's a formal meeting.
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This claim is anachronistic in that it presupposes Aristotle's own novel view that a complete explanation must encompass four factors: what he called the formal, material, efficient, and final causes.
Presocratic Philosophy Curd, Patricia 2007
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M. O'BRIEN: Ben Hatfield, who is the chief executive officer of the company which owns the Sago M.ne, number one, said as he tried to explain what happened that the company never made what he called a formal announcement.
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If the formal is allowed here, wouldn't 'Usted desea algún agua' be the question of 'Do you want some agua?
a question 2002
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If the formal is allowed here, wouldn't 'Usted desea algún agua' be the question of 'Do you want some agua?
a question 2002
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If the formal is allowed here, wouldn't 'Usted desea algún agua' be the question of 'Do you want some agua?
a question 2002
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If the formal is allowed here, wouldn't 'Usted desea algún agua' be the question of 'Do you want some agua?
a question 2002
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