Definition of Formal

1. Noun. A lavish dance requiring formal attire.

Exact synonyms: Ball
Generic synonyms: Dance
Specialized synonyms: Cotilion, Cotillion, Fancy-dress Ball, Masked Ball, Masquerade Ball, Prom, Promenade

2. Adjective. Being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress). "A formal education"

3. Noun. A gown for evening wear.

4. Adjective. Characteristic of or befitting a person in authority. "An official banquet"
Similar to: Official
Derivative terms: Formality

5. Adjective. (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"
Attributes: Formality, Formalness
Similar to: Literary
Also: Rhetorical
Antonyms: Informal

6. Adjective. Represented in simplified or symbolic form.
Exact synonyms: Conventional, Schematic
Category relationships: Beaux Arts, Fine Arts
Similar to: Nonrepresentational
Derivative terms: Schema, Schema, Schematic, Scheme

7. Adjective. Logically deductive. "Formal proof"
Similar to: Logical

8. Adjective. Refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court. "A courtly gentleman"
Exact synonyms: Courtly, Stately
Similar to: Dignified
Derivative terms: Court, Court, Court, Courtliness, Formalness, Stateliness

Definition of Formal

1. n. See Methylal.

2. a. Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance, or organization of a thing.

Definition of Formal

1. Adjective. being in accord with established forms ¹

2. Adjective. official ¹

3. Adjective. relating to the form or structure of something ¹

4. Adjective. ceremonial ¹

5. Adjective. (gardening) organized; well-structured and planned ¹

6. Noun. formalin ¹

7. Noun. an evening gown ¹

8. Noun. an event with a formal dress code ¹

¹ Source: wiktionary.com

Definition of Formal

1. a social event that requires evening dress [n -S]

Lexicographical Neighbors of Formal

form factors
form family
form feed
form genera
form genus
form letter
form of government
form perception
form taxa
form taxon
formabilities
formability
formable
formably
formake
formal (current term)
formal fallacy
formal garden
formal grammar
formal grammars
formal language
formal languages
formal logic
formal logics
formal ontology
formal operations
formal parameter
formal science
formal sciences
formal semantics

Literary usage of Formal

Below you will find example usage of this term as found in modern and/or classical literature:

1. Education by Project Innovation (Organization) (1915)
"8 formal English Grammar; Its Uses and Abuses BY G. DAVID HOUSTON, ... Like the "Brazen Head" of , Friar Bacon, formal Grammar has been expected | to ..."

2. The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the by Charles George Herbermann, Edward Aloysius Pace, Condé Bénoist Pallen, Thomas Joseph Shahan, John Joseph Wynne (1913)
"The formal cause of material entities has been described as that substantial ... Of this nature are said to be all substantial forms, or formal causes, ..."

3. Commentaries on the Laws of England by William Blackstone, William Carey Jones (1915)
"The earlier American cases usually hold that there must be a formal marriage before a ... A few states still adhere to the requirement of a formal marriage. ..."

4. Dictionary of National Biography by LESLIE. STEPHEN (1892)
"negotiation which had been previously entered on for a marriage between Charles and Christina, the sister of Louis XIII, as a preliminary to a more formal ..."

5. Psychological Review by American Psychological Association (1896)
"A PSYCHOLOGICAL INTERPRETATION OF CERTAIN DOCTRINES IN formal LOGIC.1 The tendency of the later modern logic has certainly been to free the account of the ..."

6. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London by Royal Society (Great Britain) (1872)
"This paper contains the following contributions to formal Logic :— Statement of the Problem of Deductive Logic, with a classification of its cases. ..."

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