Formal

• POS: Adjective, Noun
• HYPHEN: for=mal

CIDE DICTIONARY

Formal, n. [L. formic + alcohol.].

 See Methylal.

Formal, a. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.].

•  Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "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."  [1913 Webster]
•  Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as, he gave his formal consent.  [1913 Webster]

  "His obscure funeral . . .
  No noble rite nor formal ostentation."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and rhomboids."  [1913 Webster]

  "She took off the formal cap that confined her hair."  [1913 Webster]
•  Having the form or appearance without the substance or essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal courtesy, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  Dependent in form; conventional.  [1913 Webster]

  "Still in constraint your suffering sex remains,
  Or bound in formal or in real chains."  [1913 Webster]
•  Sound; normal.  [1913 Webster]

  "To make of him a formal man again."  [1913 Webster]

Formal cause. See under Cause.

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

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Formal, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 used or done or held in accordance with rules, convention, or ceremony (formal dress; a formal occasion).
2 ceremonial; required by convention (a formal call).
3 precise or symmetrical (a formal garden).
4 prim or stiff in manner.
5 perfunctory, having the form without the spirit.
6 valid or correctly so called because of its form; explicit and definite (a formal agreement).
7 in accordance with recognized forms or rules.
8 of or concerned with (outward) form or appearance, esp. as distinct from content or matter.
9 Logic concerned with the form and not the matter of reasoning.
10 Philos. of the essence of a thing; essential not material.
--n. US 1 evening dress.
2 an occasion on which evening dress is worn.

Derivative

formally adv. formalness n.

Etymology

ME f. L formalis (as FORM)

THESAURUS

Formal

High-Church, Latinate, 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, honorific, hypocoristic, impersonal, in hand, in name only, inaugural, inauguration, inflated, inflexible, initiation, inkhorn, intransitive, knightly, labored, 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, so-called, sober, sober-minded, sobersided, soi-disant, solemn, solemnity, solemnization, somber, square, staid, standard, starched, stately, steady, stiff, stilted, stone-faced, straight, straight-faced, strait-laced, straitened, 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

ROGET THESAURUS

Formal

Inelegance

N inelegance, stiffness, unlettered Muse, barbarism, slang, solecism, mannerism, euphuism, fustian, cacophony, words that break the teeth, words that dislocate the jaw, marinism, inelegant, graceless, ungraceful, harsh, abrupt, dry, stiff, cramped, formal, guinde, forced, labored, artificial, mannered, ponderous, awkward, uncourtly, unpolished, turgid, affected, euphuistic, barbarous, uncouth, grotesque, rude, crude, halting, offensive to ears polite, Spoken Language.

State

N state, condition, category, estate, lot, ease, trim, mood, pickle, plight, temper, aspect, dilemma, pass, predicament, constitution, habitude, diathesis, frame, fabric, stamp, set, fit, mold, mould, mode, modality, schesis, form, tone, tenor, turn, trim, guise, fashion, light, complexion, style, character, conditional, modal, formal, structural, organic, conditionally, as the matter stands, as things are, such being the case.

Conformity

N conformity, conformance, observance, habituation, naturalization, conventionality, agreement, example, instance, specimen, sample, quotation, exemplification, illustration, case in point, object lesson, elucidation, standard, model, pattern, rule, nature, principle, law, order of things, normal state, natural state, ordinary state, model state, normal condition, natural condition, ordinary condition, model condition, standing dish, standing order, Procrustean law, law of the Medes and Persians, hard and fast rule, conformable to rule, regular, according to regulation, according to rule, according to Hoyle, according to Cocker, according to Gunter, en regle, selon les regles, well regulated, orderly, symmetric, conventional, of daily occurrence, of everyday occurrence, in the natural order of things, ordinary, common, habitual, usual, everyday, workaday, in the order of the day, naturalized, typical, normal, nominal, formal, canonical, orthodox, sound, strict, rigid, positive, uncompromising, Procrustean, secundum artem, shipshape, technical, exempIe, illustrative, in point, conformably, by rule, agreeably to, in conformity with, in accordance with, in keeping with, according to, consistently with, as usual, ad instar, instar omnium, more solito, more-majorum, for the sake of conformity, as a matter of course, of course, pro forma, for form's sake, by the card, invariably, for example, exempli gratia, e, g, inter alia, among other things, for instance, cela va sans dire, ex pede Herculem, noscitur a sociis, ne e quovis ligno Mercurius fiat, they are happy men whose natures sort with their v, The nail that sticks up hammered down, Tall poppy syndrome, Stick your neck out and it may get cut off.

Affectation

N affectation, affectedness, acting a part, pretense boasting, charlatanism, quackery, shallow profundity, pretension, airs, pedantry, purism, precisianism, euphuism, teratology, mannerism, simagree, grimace, conceit, foppery, dandyism, man millinery, coxcombry, puppyism, stiffness, formality, buckram, prudery, demureness, coquetry, mock modesty, minauderie, sentimentalism, mauvais honte, false shame, affector, performer, actor, pedant, pedagogue, doctrinaire, purist, euphuist, mannerist, grimacier, lump of affectation, precieuse ridicule, bas bleu, blue stocking, poetaster, prig, charlatan, petit maitre, flatterer, coquette, prude, puritan, affected, full of affectation, pretentious, pedantic, stilted, stagy, theatrical, big-sounding, ad captandum, canting, insincere, not natural, unnatural, self-conscious, maniere, artificial, overwrought, overdone, overacted, euphuist, stiff, starch, formal, prim, smug, demure, tire a quatre epingles, quakerish, puritanical, prudish, pragmatical, priggish, conceited, coxcomical, foppish, dandified, finical, finikin, mincing, simpering, namby-pamby, sentimental, conceit in weakest bodies strongest works.

Ostentation

N ostentation, display, show, flourish, parade, etalage, pomp, array, state, solemnity, dash, splash, splurge, glitter, strut, pomposity, pretense, pretensions, showing off, fuss, magnificence, splendor, coup d'oeil, grand doings, coup de theatre, stage effect, stage trick, claptrap, mise en scene, tour de force, chic, demonstration, flying colors, tomfoolery, flourish of trumpets, pageant, pageantry, spectacle, exhibition, exposition, procession, turn out, set out, grand function, f=ete, gala, field day, review, march past, promenade, insubstantial pageant, dress, court dress, full dress, evening dress, ball dress, fancy dress, tailoring, millinery, man millinery, frippery, foppery, equipage, ceremony, ceremonial, ritual, form, formality, etiquette, puncto, punctilio, punctiliousness, starched stateliness, stateliness, mummery, solemn mockery, mouth honor, attitudinarian, fop, ostentatious, showy, dashing, pretentious, janty, jaunty, grand, pompous, palatial, high-sounding, turgid gairish, garish, gaudy, gaudy as a peacock, gaudy as a butterfly, gaudy as a tulip, flaunting, flashing, flaming, glittering, gay, splendid, magnificent, sumptuous, theatrical, dramatic, spectacular, ceremonial, ritual, solemn, stately, majestic, formal, stiff, ceremonious, punctilious, starched, dressed to kill, dressed to the nines, decjed out, all decked out, en granite tenue, in best bib and tucker, in Sunday best, endimanch_e, chic, with flourish of trumpet, with beat of drum, with flying colors, ad captandum vulgus, honores mutant mores.

Affirmation

N affirmance, affirmation, statement, allegation, assertion, predication, declaration, word, averment, confirmation, asseveration, adjuration, swearing, oath, affidavit, deposition, avouchment, assurance, protest, protestation, profession, acknowledgment, legal pledge, pronouncement, solemn averment, solemn avowal, solemn declaration, remark, observation, position, saying, dictum, sentence, ipse dixit, emphasis, weight, dogmatism, dogmatics, asserting, declaratory, predicatory, pronunciative, affirmative, soi-disant, positive, certain, express, explicit, absolute, emphatic, flat, broad, round, pointed, marked, distinct, decided, confident, trenchant, dogmatic, definitive, formal, solemn, categorical, peremptory, unretracted, predicable, affirmatively, in the affirmative, with emphasis, ex-cathedra, without fear of contradiction, as God is my witness, I must say, indeed, i' faith, let me tell you, why, give me leave to say, marry, you may be sure, I'd have you to know, upon my word, upon my honor, by my troth, egad, I assure you, by jingo, by Jove, by George, troth, seriously, sadly, in sadness, in sober sadness, in truth, in earnest, of a truth, truly, perdy, in all conscience, upon oath, be assured, yes, I'll warrant, I'll warrant you, I'll engage, I'll answer for it, I'll be bound, I'll venture to say, I'll take my oath, in fact, forsooth, joking apart, so help me God, not to mince the matter, quoth he, dixi.