Formal Definition & Meaning | Bay Area Crosswords

About The Word Formal

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Formal

Formal Definition And Meaning
What's The Definition Of Formal? [adj] refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court; "a courtly gentleman" [adj] being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress); "pay one's formal respects"; "formal dress"; "a formal ball"; "the requirement was only formal and often ignored"; "a formal education" [adj] (of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional standards of correctness and without casual, contracted, and colloquial forms; "the paper was written in formal English" [adj] logically deductive; "formal proof" [adj] characteristic of or befitting a person in authority; "formal duties"; "an official banquet" [adj] (fine arts) represented in simplified or symbolic form Synonyms \| Synonyms for Formal: black-tie \| buckram \| ceremonial \| ceremonious \| conventional \| courtly \| dignified \| dress \| elegant \| form-only(a) \| full-dress \| literary \| logical \| nominal \| nonrepresentational \| official \| perfunctory \| positive \| prescribed \| pro forma \| schematic \| semiformal \| semi-formal \| starchy \| stately \| stiff \| titular \| white-tie Related Terms \| Find terms related to Formal: accepted \| acknowledged \| adjectival \| admitted \| adverbial \| anatomic \| approved \| architectonic \| architectural \| arranged \| attributive \| authorized \| awkward \| baccalaureate service \| baptismal \| being done \| bloated \| bombastic \| businesslike \| byname \| celebration \| ceremonial \| ceremonious \| ceremony \| chivalric \| chivalrous \| cognominal \| comme il faut \| commencement \| conditional \| confining \| conformable \| conjunctive \| constructional \| conventional \| conventionalized \| convocation \| copulative \| correct \| courtly \| cramped \| cumbrous \| customary \| de rigueur \| decent \| decorous \| definite \| demure \| dignified \| diminutive \| distant \| dress uniform \| earnest \| edificial \| elephantine \| empty formality \| epithetic \| established \| eucharistic \| evening dress \| exact \| exacting \| exercise \| exercises \| explicit \| express \| extrinsic \| fixed \| flatulent \| forced \| formal dress \| formalist \| formalistic \| formality \| formalized \| formational \| formative \| formulaic \| formular \| formulary \| frowning \| full dress \| function \| functional \| gallant \| gassy \| glossematic \| graduation \| graduation exercises \| grammatic \| grandiloquent \| grave \| grim \| grim-faced \| grim-visaged \| guinde \| habitual \| halting \| harmonious \| heavy \| High-Church \| honorific \| hypocoristic \| impersonal \| in hand \| in name only \| inaugural \| inauguration \| inflated \| inflexible \| initiation \| inkhorn \| intransitive \| knightly \| labored \| Latinate \| lawful \| leaden \| legal \| legalistic \| limited \| linking \| liturgic \| liturgistic \| liturgy \| long-faced \| lumbering \| meet \| methodical \| modal \| morphological \| morphotic \| mummery \| nominal \| nominative \| normal \| observance \| office \| official \| old-fashioned \| old-world \| ordered \| orderly \| organic \| organismal \| orthodox \| ostensible \| outward \| participial \| paschal \| pedantic \| performance \| plastic \| pompous \| ponderous \| pontifical \| postpositional \| precise \| prepositional \| prescribed \| pretended \| prim \| pro forma \| professed \| pronominal \| proper \| punctilious \| purported \| quasi \| received \| recognized \| regalia \| regular \| religious ceremony \| reserved \| right \| rigid \| rite \| rite de passage \| rite of passage \| ritual \| ritualistic \| routine \| sacramental \| sacramentarian \| sedate \| seemly \| self-called \| self-christened \| self-important \| self-styled \| serious \| service \| sesquipedalian \| set \| sober \| sober-minded \| sobersided \| so-called \| soi-disant \| solemn \| solemnity \| solemnization \| somber \| square \| staid \| standard \| starched \| stately \| steady \| stiff \| stilted \| stone-faced \| straight \| straight-faced \| straitened \| strait-laced \| strict \| structural \| stuffy \| stylized \| substantive \| substructural \| superficial \| superstructural \| supposed \| surface \| swollen \| symmetrical \| syntactic \| systematic \| tagmemic \| tails \| tectonic \| textural \| thoughtful \| titular \| traditional \| transitive \| tumid \| turgid \| tuxedo \| unbending \| unchanging \| uniform \| unsmiling \| unwieldy \| usual \| verbal \| weighty \| well-ordered \| well-regulated \| would-be See Also \| formal \| rhetorical Formal In Webster's Dictionary \For"mal\ (f[^o]r"mal), n. [L. formic + alcohol.] (Chem.) See {Methylal}. \Form"al\ (f[^o]rm"al), a. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.] 1. Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing. 2. 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. Of [the sounds represented by] letters, the material part is breath and voice; the formal is constituted by the motion and figure of the organs of speech. --Holder. 3. Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent. His obscure funeral . . . No noble rite nor formal ostentation. --Shak. 4. Devoted to, or done in accordance with, forms or rules; punctilious; regular; orderly; methodical; of a prescribed form; exact; prim; stiff; ceremonious; as, a man formal in his dress, his gait, his conversation. A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and rhomboids. --W. Irwing. She took off the formal cap that confined her hair. --Hawthorne. 5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal courtesy, etc. 6. Dependent in form; conventional. Still in constraint your suffering sex remains, Or bound in formal or in real chains. --Pope. 7. Sound; normal. [Obs.] To make of him a formal man again. --Shak. {Formal cause}. See under {Cause}. Syn: Precise; punctilious; stiff; starched; affected; ritual; ceremonial; external; outward. Usage: {Formal}, {Ceremonious}. When applied to things, these words usually denote a mere accordance with the rules of form or ceremony; as, to make a formal call; to take a ceremonious leave. When applied to a person or his manners, they are used in a bad sense; a person being called formal who shapes himself too much by some pattern or set form, and ceremonious when he lays too much stress on the conventional laws of social intercourse. Formal manners render a man stiff or ridiculous; a ceremonious carriage puts a stop to the ease and freedom of social intercourse.

Formal Definition And Meaning

What's The Definition Of Formal?

[adj] refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court; "a courtly gentleman"
[adj] being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress); "pay one's formal respects"; "formal dress"; "a formal ball"; "the requirement was only formal and often ignored"; "a formal education"
[adj] (of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional standards of correctness and without casual, contracted, and colloquial forms; "the paper was written in formal English"
[adj] logically deductive; "formal proof"
[adj] characteristic of or befitting a person in authority; "formal duties"; "an official banquet"
[adj] (fine arts) represented in simplified or symbolic form

See Also | formal | rhetorical

Formal In Webster's Dictionary

\For"mal\ (f[^o]r"mal), n. [L. formic + alcohol.] (Chem.)
See {Methylal}.


\Form"al\ (f[^o]rm"al), a. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.]
1. Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance,
   or organization of a thing.

2. 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.

         Of [the sounds represented by] letters, the material
         part is breath and voice; the formal is constituted
         by the motion and figure of the organs of speech.
                                               --Holder.

3. Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular
   method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as,
   he gave his formal consent.

         His obscure funeral . . . No noble rite nor formal
         ostentation.                          --Shak.

4. Devoted to, or done in accordance with, forms or rules;
   punctilious; regular; orderly; methodical; of a prescribed
   form; exact; prim; stiff; ceremonious; as, a man formal in
   his dress, his gait, his conversation.

         A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and
         rhomboids.                            --W. Irwing.

         She took off the formal cap that confined her hair.
                                               --Hawthorne.

5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or
   essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal
   courtesy, etc.

6. Dependent in form; conventional.

         Still in constraint your suffering sex remains, Or
         bound in formal or in real chains.    --Pope.

7. Sound; normal. [Obs.]

         To make of him a formal man again.    --Shak.

{Formal cause}. See under {Cause}.

Syn: Precise; punctilious; stiff; starched; affected; ritual;
     ceremonial; external; outward.

Usage: {Formal}, {Ceremonious}. When applied to things, these
       words usually denote a mere accordance with the rules
       of form or ceremony; as, to make a formal call; to
       take a ceremonious leave. When applied to a person or
       his manners, they are used in a bad sense; a person
       being called formal who shapes himself too much by
       some pattern or set form, and ceremonious when he lays
       too much stress on the conventional laws of social
       intercourse. Formal manners render a man stiff or
       ridiculous; a ceremonious carriage puts a stop to the
       ease and freedom of social intercourse.

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