formal
Noun · AdjectiveOpen English WordNet
Adjective (6)
- 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”Opposite informalSimilar positive, starchy, pro forma, full-dress, form-only, dress, nominal, semiformal +3 moreRelates to formality, formalnessSee also conventional
- characteristic of or befitting a person in authority“formal duties”“a formal banquet”Opposite unofficialSimilar official
- (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”Opposite informalSimilar literaryRelates to formality, formalnessSee also rhetorical
- represented in simplified or symbolic formSynonyms: conventionalschematicOpposite representationalSimilar nonrepresentational
- logically deductive“formal proof”Opposite illogicalSimilar logical
- refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court“a courtly gentleman”Synonyms: courtlystatelyOpposite undignifiedSimilar dignified
Noun (2)
- a lavish dance requiring formal attireSynonyms: ballType of danceKinds masked ball, cotillion, promenade
- a gown for evening wearSynonyms: dinner dressdinner gownevening gownType of gown, formalwear
What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz
Translations
Adjective being in accord with established forms
- Spanish
- formal
- French
- formel
- German
- formell
- Italian
- formale
- Portuguese
- formal
- Russian
- форма́льный formálʹnyj
- Arabic
- رَسْمِيّ rasmiyy
- Chinese
- 正式 zhèngshì
- Japanese
- 正式 seishiki
- Dutch
- formeel
21 more languages
- Polish
- formalny
- Swedish
- formell
- Greek
- επίσημος epísimos
- Indonesian
- formal
- Hungarian
- formális
- Portuguese (PT)
- formal
- Chinese (Trad.)
- 正式 zhèngshì
- Catalan
- formal
- Czech
- formální
- Danish
- formel
- Esperanto
- formala
- Estonian
- ametlik
- Finnish
- kaavamainen
- Georgian
- ფორმალური pormaluri
- Hebrew
- פוֹרְמָלִי formalí
- Icelandic
- formlegur
- Norwegian
- formell
- Romanian
- formal
- Serbo-Croatian
- formalan
- Slovak
- formálny
- Swahili
- rasmi
Adjective official
- French
- officiel
- German
- förmlich
- Portuguese
- formal
- Turkish
- resmî
- Russian
- официа́льный oficiálʹnyj
- Arabic
- رَسْمِيّ rasmiyy
- Chinese
- 正式 zhèngshì
- Dutch
- formeel
- Polish
- oficjalny
- Greek
- επίσημος epísimos
16 more languages
The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.
Webster's Dictionary (1913)
Origin: L. formic + alcohol.
Chemistry See Methylal.
Origin: 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.— William 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.— William Shakespeare
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.— Nathaniel 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.— Alexander Pope
7. Sound; normal. obsolete
To make of him a formal man again.— William Shakespeare
Formal cause. See under Cause.
Synonyms: Precise; punctilious; stiff; starched; affected; ritual; ceremonial; external; outward. — 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.
Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing
1.FORmula MAnipulation Language.
An early Fortran extension for symbolic mathematics.
["FORMAL, A Formula Manipulation Language", C.K. Mesztenyi, Computer Note CN-1, CS Dept, U Maryland (Jan 1971)].
2.A data manipulation language for nonprogrammers from IBM LASC.
["FORMAL: A Forms-Oriented and Visual-Directed Application System", N.C. Shu, IEEE Computer 18(8):38-49 (1985)].
(1994-12-06)