Word Meanings - FORMAL - Book Publishers vocabulary database

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;

Additional info about word: FORMAL

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 oe depending on the forms, so called of the human intellect. Of 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 is 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. To make of him a formal man again. Shak. Formal cause. See under Cause. Syn. -- 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.

Possible synonyms: (Same meaning words of FORMAL)

• Ceremonious
• Punctilious
• formal
• prim
• precise
• Nominal
• Trifling
• suppositious
• ostensible
• professed
• pretended
• Pharisaical
• Sanctimonious
• ceremonious
• precision
• Precise
• Definite
• exact
• nice
• pointed
• accurate
• correct
• particular
• explicit
• scrupulous
• terse
• punctilious
• Prim
• Formal
• demure
• starched
• stiff
• self-conscious
• unbending
• priggish

Possible antonyms: (opposite words of FORMAL)

• Spare
• falsify
• corrupt

Related words: (words related to FORMAL)

• PROFESSORY
  Of or pertaining to a professor; professorial. Bacon.
• FORMALITY
  The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal. The doctors attending her in their formalities as far as Shotover. Fuller. 6. That which is formal; the formal part. It unties the inward knot of marriage, . . . while
• DEMURE
  good manners); de of + murs, mours, meurs, mors, F. m, fr. L. mores manners, morals ; or more prob. fr. OF. meür, F. mûr mature, ripe in a phrase preceded by de, as de 1. Of sober or serious mien; composed and decorous in bearing; of modest
• ACCURATENESS
  The state or quality of being accurate; accuracy; exactness; nicety; precision.
• PROFESSORIALISM
  The character, manners, or habits of a professor.
• TERSE
  1. Appearing as if rubbed or wiped off; rubbed; smooth; polished. Many stones, . . . although terse and smooth, have not this power attractive. Sir T. Browne. 2. Refined; accomplished; -- said of persons. "Your polite and terse gallants."
• EXACTOR
  One who exacts or demands by authority or right; hence, an extortioner; also, one unreasonably severe in injunctions or demands. Jer. Taylor.
• CORRECTLY
  In a correct manner; exactly; acurately; without fault or error.
• TRIFLE
  trifle, probably the same word as F. truffe truffle, the word being 1. A thing of very little value or importance; a paltry, or trivial, affair. With such poor trifles playing. Drayton. Trifles light as air Are to the jealous confirmation strong
• STIFFENER
  One who, or that which, stiffens anything, as a piece of stiff cloth in a cravat.
• PROFESSORIAT
  See PROFESSORIATE
• EXACTING
  Oppressive or unreasonably severe in making demands or requiring the exact fulfillment of obligations; harsh; severe. "A temper so exacting." T. Arnold -- Ex*act"ing*ly, adv. -- Ex*act"ing*ness, n.
• CORRUPTIONIST
  One who corrupts, or who upholds corruption. Sydney Smith.
• CORRUPTIBLE
  1. Capable of being made corrupt; subject to decay. "Our corruptible bodies." Hooker. Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold. 1 Pet. i. 18. 2. Capable of being corrupted, or morally vitiated; susceptible of depravation.
• STARCHER
  One who starches.
• NOMINALIST
  One of a sect of philosophers in the Middle Ages, who adopted the opinion of Roscelin, that general conceptions, or universals, exist in name only. Reid.
• EXACTLY
  In an exact manner; precisely according to a rule, standard, or fact; accurately; strictly; correctly; nicely. "Exactly wrought." Shak. His enemies were pleased, for he had acted exactly as their interests required. Bancroft.
• POINT SWITCH
  A switch made up of a rail from each track, both rails being tapered far back and connected to throw alongside the through rail of either track.
• POINTLESSLY
  Without point.
• NOMINAL
  1. Of or pertaining to a name or names; having to do with the literal meaning of a word; verbal; as, a nominal definition. Bp. Pearson. 2. Existing in name only; not real; as, a nominal difference. "Nominal attendance on lectures." Macaulay.
• REFORMALIZE
  To affect reformation; to pretend to correctness.
• INEXACTLY
  In a manner not exact or precise; inaccurately. R. A. Proctor.
• INEXACT
  Not exact; not precisely correct or true; inaccurate.
• TRANSPARENT
  transparere to be transparent; L. trans across, through + parere to 1. Having the property of transmitting rays of light, so that bodies can be distinctly seen through; pervious to light; diaphanous; pellucid; as, transparent glass; a transparent
• COVER-POINT
  The fielder in the games of cricket and lacrosse who supports "point."
• INEXPLICIT
  Not explicit; not clearly stated; indefinite; vague.