formal
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈfɔɹməl/
ipa: /ˈfɔːməl/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)məl
Forms: form: more formal
form: most formal
Etymology: From Middle English formel, borrowed from Old French formel, from Latin fōrmālis, from fōrma (“form”); equivalent to form + -al.
Senses: examples: text: She spoke formal English, without any dialect.
glosses: In accordance with established forms.
examples: text: I'd like to make a formal complaint.
text: Despite efforts by limnologists and freshwater biologists to create a formal definition of “pond”, there is still no universal distinction between a “pond” and a “lake.”
glosses: Official.
examples: text: Formal linguistics ignores the vocabulary of languages and focuses solely on their grammar.
text: THE THREE DOMINANT FORMS IN METALSMITHING […] At present, there are but three basic volumetric forms dominating the work of metalsmiths, the spherical (usually in its most practical form, the domical), the cylindrical, and the cubical. […] The possibilities for further variations on them are all but exhausted, there being little chance to express new and unusual ideas within the framework of such limited choices. As a result, much of twentieth-century metalsmithing has relied on surface enrichment rather than formal development for its originality.
ref: 1978, Heikki Seppä, Form Emphasis for Metalsmiths, [Kent, Oh.]: Kent State University Press, →ISBN, page 1:
glosses: Relating to the form or structure of something.
examples: text: The formal stage is a critical part of any child's development.
glosses: Relating to formation.
examples: text: Formal wear must be worn at my wedding!
glosses: Ceremonial or traditional.
examples: text: He's always very formal, and I wish he'd relax a bit.
glosses: Proper, according to strict etiquette; not casual.
examples: text: When they became a formal club the rowers built a small boathouse.
glosses: Organized; well-structured and planned.
examples: text: A set of words can be formal cognates only if they can be derived from a common ancestor by regular sound laws.
text: Only formal proofs, which derive theorems logically from their given axioms, are considered satisfactory in modern mathematics.
topics: human-sciences
linguistics
mathematics
sciences
glosses: In accordance with a methodological framework with well-defined rules or laws; rigorous.
examples: text: Formal series are defined without any reference to convergence.
topics: human-sciences
mathematics
philosophy
sciences
glosses: Relating to mere manipulation and construction of strings of symbols, without regard to their meaning.
Derived terms: business formal
essive-formal
formal cause
formal charge
formal education
formal equivalence
formalese
formalesque
formal fallacy
formal grammar
formal heresy
formalish
formalism
formalist
formality
formalization
formalize
formal language
formal linguistics
formal logic
formally
formal mathematics
formalness
formal ontology
formal power series
formal science
formal semantics
formal series
formal sociology
formal sum
formal system
formal validity
formal wear
formalwear
hyperformal
microformal
nonformal
non-formal learning
omniformal
overformal
postformal
pseudoformal
semiformal
superformal
ultraformal
unformal
Related terms: form