noun
definition
Formalin.
definition
An evening gown.
definition
An event with a formal dress code.
example
Jenny took Sam to her Year 12 formal.
definition
A formal parameter.
adjective
definition
Being in accord with established forms.
example
She spoke formal English, without any dialect.
definition
Official.
example
I'd like to make a formal complaint.
definition
Relating to the form or structure of something.
example
Formal linguistics ignores the vocabulary of languages and focuses solely on their grammar.
definition
Relating to formation.
example
The formal stage is a critical part of any child's development.
definition
Ceremonial or traditional.
example
Formal wear must be worn at my wedding!
definition
Proper, according to strict etiquette; not casual.
example
He's always very formal, and I wish he'd relax a bit.
definition
Organized; well-structured and planned.
example
When they became a formal club the rowers built a small boathouse.
definition
Relating to mere manipulation and construction of strings of symbols, without regard to their meaning.
example
Formal series are defined without any reference to convergence.
Examples of formal in a Sentence
No. Do they ever have a formal dinner?
Alex was cordial to his father and formal to his sister.
Folks were a bit more formal back then.
Though he disclaims being a follower of Herbart, his formal definition of philosophy and his conception of the object of metaphysics are similar to those of Herbart, who defines philosophy as an attempt to remodel the notions given by experience.
You could wear a feed sack at a formal dinner and not look underdressed.
He indicated a narrow hallway off the large formal living room.
She crossed to the railing of the loft area overlooking the formal living room with its two-story hearth.
The open floor plan ran from the living area through a kitchen to a formal dining room area that had been converted into an office on the other side.
This is the formal definition of philosophy.
Katie grumbled, uncomfortable in her formal dress.
Go ahead and make yourselves at home down here, Jessi said, indicating the formal living room.
But, as Teuffel has said, his debt to these writers is chiefly a formal one.
The atmosphere felt stiff and formal, as if this was not part of their routine.
In the matter of the rhythms, caesuras and elisions which it allows, the metrical treatment is much more severe than that of Catullus, whose elegiacs are comparatively rude and barbarous; but it is not bound hand and foot, like the Ovidian distich, in a formal and conventional system.
A railing lined the loft area overlooking the formal living area on the first floor.
But this formal agreement includes material differences, and the spirit which breathes in Lotze's writings is more akin to the objects and aspirations of the idealistic school than to the cold formalism of Herbart.
It looked as stiff and formal as his hacienda did.
Christian approved a plan by which a formal state church should be established in Denmark, all appeals to Rome should be abolished, and the king and diet should have final jurisdiction in ecclesiastical causes.
The designation comes thus developed into a formal official title of high officers of state, some qualification being added to indicate the special duties attached to the office in each case.
The old system of locating immigrants in colonies, or colonial nuclei, which involved an enormous outlay of money with but slight benefit to the country, has been superseded by a system of locating the immigrants on the large plantations under formal contracts.
The formal proclamation was made on Dingaan's Day, and after the defeat of the British at Majuba Hill in 1881 that victory was also commemorated at Paardekraal on the 16th of December.
It has the formal interest of being one of the earliest, certainly one of the most extensive versedocuments in Scots written in five-accent, or heroic, couplets.
Just as the genus becomes the species by the addition of formal determinations called the difference, so the species becomes the individual by the addition of fresh forms of difference.
But they were guerillas, not regulars; they had no good officers, no serviceable artillery, and very little money; and all the foreign powers to whom Rakoczy turned for assistance (excepting France, who fed them occasionally with paltry subsidies) would not commit themselves to a formal alliance with rebels who were defeated in every pitched battle they fought.
So early as March 1908 Mr Hallo had laid a formal proposal before the House that the charter of the AustroHungarian bank, which was to expire on the 31st of December 19 10, should not be renewed; that negotiations should be opened with the Austrian government with a view to a convention between the banks of Austria and Hungary; and that, in the event of these negotiations failing, an entirely separate Hungarian bank should be established.
The first formal proof of Lagrange's theorem for the development in a series of an implicit function was furnished by Laplace, who gave to it an extended generality.
Moreover, the ideas which are usually formed on these points at an early stage are incomplete; and, if the incompleteness of an idea is not realized, operations in which it is implied are apt to be purely formal and mechanical.
Thus, to divide i by i +x algebraically, we may write it in the form I+o.x+o.x 2 +o.x 3 +o.x 4, and we then obtain I I +0.x+0.x2+0.x3 '+0.x4 = I' x+x2 - x 3 + x4 I+x I+x' where the successive terms of the quotient are obtained by a process which is purely formal.
But when an algebra is used with a particular interpretation, or even in the course of its formal development, it frequently happens that new symbols of operation are, so to speak, superposed upon the algebra, and are found to obey certain formal laws of combination of their own.
Harcourt's formal resignation of the leadership of the Opposition, he was elected to fill the position in the House of Commons with the general assent of the party.
Both combatants had, according to the absurd habit of the time, to disown their works, Desfontaines's disavowal being formal and procured by the exertion of all Voltaire's own influence both at home and abroad.
Hindus, the Egyptians have maintained to the present day; and, although they have changed their religion, the use of incense among them continues to be as familiar and formal as ever.
These names are all in common use, though their formal application is in some cases extended over several districts of which the ancient names remain familiar.
London has not grown up along formal lines; nor is any large part of it laid out according to the conceptions of a single generation.
The Convention which was summoned to meet on the 22nd of January 1689 was converted by a formal act into a true parliament (February 23).
Coming over the Drakensberg in considerable numbers during 1837, the Boers found the land stretching south from the mountains almost deserted, and Retief went to Arrival Dingaan to obtain a formal cession of the country of the west of the Tugela, which river the Zulu recognized as the boundary of Zululand proper.
The Zulu country continued, however, excited and disturbed until the government of Natal in 1861 obtained the formal nomination of a successor to Panda; and Cetywayo was appointed.
The British government intervened, took formal possession of St Lucia Bay (to which Germany as well as the Transvaal advanced claims), caused the Boers to reduce their demands, and within boundaries agreed to recognize the New Republic - whose territory was in 1888 incorporated in the Transvaal and has since 1903 formed the Vryheid division of Natal.
The loss of Pegu was long a matter of bitter regret, and he absolutely refused to acknowledge it by a formal treaty.
No formal alteration has been made in the Sikh religion since Guru Govind Singh gave it his military organization, but certain modifications have taken place as the result of time and contact with Hinduism.
This is chiefly derived from a chronological tablet containing the annals of Nabonidus, which is supplemented by an inscription of Nabonidus, in which he recounts his restoration of the temple of the Moon-god at Harran, as well as by a proclamation of Cyrus issued shortly after his formal recognition as king of Babylonia.
Its formal, straight streets, crossing one another regularly at right angles, and its uniform, two-storeyed houses were built in imitation of the Dutch style, under the direction of Jeronimo, marquis de Grimaldi (1716-1788), ambassador of Charles III.
In the case of bishops, the full and formal title of address is the Lord Bishop of A., whether he be a spiritual peer or not.
On the 9th of August 1832 Mahmud made, through Stratford Canning, a formal proposal for an alliance with Great Britain, which Palmerston refused to consider for fear of offending France.
Along with these crimes against religion went treason to the emperor, offences against the laws, especially counterfeiting, defraudation in taxes, seizure of confiscated property, evil conduct of imperial officers, &c. There is no formal definition of sacrilege in the code of Justinian but the conception remains as wide.
Calvin's first principle, the absolute sovereignty of God, had been so applied as to make the divine decree determine alike the acts and the destinies of men; and his formal principle had been so construed as to invest his system with the authority of the source whence it professed to have been drawn.
Bureda and Aneza were occupied without opposition, the rebellious sheiks amnestied by the sultan and loaded with gifts, and formal peace was made between the rival factions.
His formal lectures were supplemented by discussions amongst his pupils.
They formed an independent community and in 1854 obtained, in exchange for a hundred head of cattle, formal cession of the territory from Panda, the Zulu king.
A formal treaty was then concluded, which the Slavonians swore to observe in the names of their gods Perun and Volos.