form
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: enpr: fôrm
ipa: /fɔːm/
enpr: fôrm
ipa: /fɔɹm/
ipa: [fo̞ɹm]
note: without the horse–hoarse merger, rhotic
ipa: /fo(ː)ɹm/
rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)m
Forms: form: forms
form: forme
Etymology: From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”).
In sense "division grouping school students" (now dated), derived from public school nomenclature later adopted by state schools. It is sometimes said to be from the sense of "bench", where students of certain ages would sit together, though this is disputed, or alternatively from the sense of "established method of expression or practice".
Senses: examples: text: Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
ref: 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations:
text: The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.
ref: 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
text: As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field.
ref: 2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, page 30:
topics: heading
glosses: To do with shape.
The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
topics: heading
glosses: To do with shape.
A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.
topics: heading
glosses: To do with shape.
Regularity, beauty, or elegance.
topics: heading
human-sciences
philosophy
sciences
glosses: To do with shape.
The inherent nature of an object; that which the mind itself contributes as the condition of knowing; that in which the essence of a thing consists.
topics: heading
glosses: To do with shape.
Characteristics not involving atomic components.
examples: text: And there with syr Launcelot wrapped his mantel aboute his arme wel and surely and by thenne they had geten a grete fourme oute of the halle and there with all they rasshed at the dore […].
ref: 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XX, Chapter iv, leaf 401v:
text: In the hall. One large table, with frame. 10s. ij cobbordes 8s. j fourme, j chaire, and j kenninge measure, 12d.
ref: 1585–1586 January 18, chapter LXIII, in [William Greenwell], editor, Wills and Inventories from the Registry at Durham. Part II (The Publications of the Surtees Society; XXXVIII), Durham: George Andrews, Durham; London: Whittaker and Co.; T. and W. Boone; Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons, published 1860, →OCLC, page 132:
text: I can see the old schoolroom yet: the broken-down desks and the worn-out forms with knots in that got stuck into your backside[…].
ref: 1981, GB Edwards, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, New York, published 2007, page 10:
text: The prefect grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me down a passageway, and down another and finally through a door that led into a long, low dining-room crowded with loudly breakfasting boys sitting on long, shiny oak forms, as benches used to be called.
ref: 2010, Stephen Fry, The Fry Chronicles: An Autobiography:
topics: heading
glosses: To do with shape.
A long bench with no back.
topics: heading
glosses: To do with shape.
The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
qualifier: fine arts
topics: chemistry
crystallography
heading
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To do with shape.
The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.
examples: text: Those whom form of laws
 Condemned to die.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “(please specify the book number)”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
text: [H]e sprang into the road, without previously going through the empty form of advising the driver of his intention, to pick [his hat] up.
ref: 1897, Richard Marsh, The Beetle:
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.
examples: text: a republican form of government
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system.
examples: text: a matter of mere form
text: Though well we may not pass upon his life
 Without the form of justice.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vii]:
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.
examples: text: ladies of a high form
ref: a. 1716 (date written), [Gilbert] Burnet, edited by [Gilbert Burnet Jr.], Bishop Burnet’s History of His Own Time. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: […] Thomas Ward […], published 1724, →OCLC:
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
A class or rank in society.
examples: text: It's fair to say she has form on this: she has criticised David Cameron's proposal to create all-women shortlists for prospective MPs, tried to ban women wearing high heels at work as the resulting pain made them take time off work, and tried to reduce the point at which an abortion can take place from 24 to 21 weeks.
ref: 2011 May 4, Jane Martinson, The Guardian:
text: As for the notion that it’s not how Sunak would have won, that doesn’t mean a whole lot coming from a guy whose recent form includes losing to Liz Truss.
ref: 2023 July 4, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian:
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
Past history (in a given area); a habit of doing something.
examples: The team's form has been poor this year.
The orchestra was on top form this evening.
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
Level of performance.
topics: education
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
A class or year of school pupils.
examples: text: Nathaniel: Maister, there is nobody to teach in the sixth form.
Maister: What a thing is this?
N: He is sick in bed.
M: How do you know?
N: One of the scholars in his house told me so.
ref: 1653, Corderius, Colloquia scholastica Anglo-Latina, […] 1653, page 220:
text: I am a very weak, insufficient scholar, sitting on the lowest form in Thy great school-house, which is the whole world, and trying to spell out the mere letters of Thy alphabet […]
ref: 1880, Charles Kingsley, Out of the Deep: Words for the Sorrowful, London: Macmillan & Co., page 190:
text: One other day after afternoon school, Mr. Percival came behind me and put his hand on me. "Let me see, what's your name? Which form are you in?[…]"
ref: 1928, George Bickerstaff, The mayor, and other folk:
text: From the sixth form will come the scholars and the administrators.
ref: 1976, Ronald King, School and college: studies of post-sixteen education:
topics: education
qualifier: social
glosses: To do with structure or procedure.
A numbered division grouping school students (usually every two years) in education between Years 1 and 13 (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the form, as in sixth form).
examples: text: To apply for the position, complete the application form.
glosses: A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.
glosses: A specimen document to be copied or imitated.
examples: text: participial forms;  verb forms
topics: grammar
human-sciences
linguistics
sciences
glosses: A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.
examples: text: Being one day a hunting, I found a Hare sitting in her forme[…].
ref: 1603, Michel de Montaigne, chapter 29, in John Florio, transl., The Essayes […], book II, London: […] Val[entine] Simmes for Edward Blount […], →OCLC:
text: The Egyptians therefore in their hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, as being a most timorous and solitary creature.
ref: , I.iii.1.2
text: Hares left their snug ‘forms’ in the cold grass.
ref: 1974, Lawrence Durrell, Monsieur, Faber & Faber, published 1992, page 275:
glosses: The den or home of a hare.
examples: text: While it is quite amazing how much one can do with Visual Basic with the code attached to a single form, to take full advantage of VB you'll need to start using multiple forms and having the code on all the forms in your project interact.
ref: 1998, Gary Cornell, Visual Basic 6 from the ground up, page 426:
text: Throughout this chapter we will work with a form in a new project.
ref: 2010, Neil Smyth, C# Essentials:
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
programming
sciences
glosses: A window or dialogue box.
topics: biology
natural-sciences
taxonomy
glosses: An infraspecific rank.
examples: text: And the form is inked, the paper is applied, the bed is slid, and the platen is levered down and the proof is printed.
ref: 2010, Andrea Levy, The Long Song, Tinder Press (2017), page 382:
topics: media
printing
publishing
glosses: The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
topics: geometry
mathematics
sciences
glosses: A quantic.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
sports
qualifier: fitness
glosses: A specific way of performing a movement.
Synonyms: sense: visible structure of a person
word: figure
word: physique
sense: visible structure of a thing or person
word: shape
word: shape
sense: thing that gives shape to other things
word: cast
sense: thing that gives shape to other things
word: cookie cutter
sense: thing that gives shape to other things
word: mold
sense: thing that gives shape to other things
word: pattern
sense: mode of construction
word: configuration
word: makeup
word: composition
sense: blank document
word: formular
sense: pre-collegiate level
word: grade
topics: biology
natural-sciences
word: f.
Derived terms: ABA form
absolute form
algebraic normal form
alloform
antiform
apoform
application form
arc-form pearly mussel
argument form
argument-form
art form
attack is the best form of defence
attack is the best form of defense
back-form
Backus-Naur form
Backus normal form
bad form
base form
basic form
beamform
bedform
best form lens
bilinear form
bioform
book form
bound form
Boyce-Codd normal form
breast form
by-form
byform
canonical conjunctive normal form
canonical disjunctive normal form
canonical form
Carlson symmetric form
citation form
claim form
clausal normal form
closed form
closing form
cloudform
collateral form
column echelon form
combining form
conjunctive normal form
count form
crudeform
crude form
cusp form
cytoform
dictionary form
differential form
disjunctive normal form
dress form
echelon form
e-form
eigenform
expanded form
extensive form game
extraordinary form
Extraordinary Form
fifth normal form
first fundamental form
first normal form
foreform
formbook
form book
form class
form-critical
form criticism
formfactor
form factor
form feed
formfilling
form filling
formfitting
form-fitting
formful
form genera
form genus
formless
form letter
formlike
formline
form of address
form of government
form room
form-room
form setter
formstone
form taxon
formwise
formwork
fourth normal form
free-form
free form
geoform
G-form
Girard form class
glycoform
godform
good form
growth form
handform
have form
hesitation form
imitation is the sincerest form of flattery
in form
in full form
ing-form
in rare form
interform
isoform
jumpform
Killing form
landform
Legendre form
letterform
leuco form
life form
lifeform
life-form
linear form
logic form
long-form
longform
lupoid form of groin ulceration
malform
megaform
metalloform
microform
mid-season form
midseason form
mid season form
modular form
morphoform
multiform
multilinear form
nanoform
newform
nitroform
normal form
normal form game
one-form
on form
on rare form
order form
ordinary form
outform
out of form
pet form
phosphoform
planform
point form
polyform
polynomial form
poor form
postform
preform
prenex normal form
presentation form
prime form
printing form
pro-form
protoform
pseudoform
quadratic form
racing form
reduced row echelon form
re-form
return to form
ring sum normal form
rise form
row echelon form
second normal form
short form
shortform
sialoform
sideform
sixth form college
slipform
sonata-allegro form
sonata form
splice form
springform
standard form
Sturm-Liouville form
subform
synform
ternary form
T form
T-form
thermoform
third normal form
thoughtform
thought-form
true to form
turn something into an art form
two-form
typeform
underlying form
ur-form
value-form
verbform
vertex form
V-form
V form
waveform
webform
wireform
wordform
xform
Related terms: formal
formula
formulaic
formulate
formulation
inform