Formal \For"mal\ (f[^o]r"mal), n. [L. formic + alcohol.] (Chem.)
See Methylal.
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Formal \Form"al\ (f[^o]rm"al), a. [L. formalis: cf. F. formel.]
1. Belonging to the form, shape, frame, external appearance,
or organization of a thing.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[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.
--Holder.
[1913 Webster]
3. Done in due form, or with solemnity; according to regular
method; not incidental, sudden or irregular; express; as,
he gave his formal consent.
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His obscure funeral . . .
No noble rite nor formal ostentation. --Shak.
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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.
[1913 Webster]
A cold-looking, formal garden, cut into angles and
rhomboids. --W. Irwing.
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She took off the formal cap that confined her hair.
--Hawthorne.
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5. Having the form or appearance without the substance or
essence; external; as, formal duty; formal worship; formal
courtesy, etc.
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6. Dependent in form; conventional.
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Still in constraint your suffering sex remains,
Or bound in formal or in real chains. --Pope.
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7. Sound; normal. [Obs.]
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To make of him a formal man again. --Shak.
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Formal cause. See under Cause.
Syn: Precise; punctilious; stiff; starched; affected; ritual;
ceremonial; external; outward.
Usage: 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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Methylal \Meth"yl*al\, n. [Methylene + alcohol.] (Chem.)
A light, volatile liquid, H2C(OCH3)2, regarded as a complex
ether, and having a pleasant ethereal odor. It is obtained by
the partial oxidation of methyl alcohol. Called also
formal.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
formal
adj 1: 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" [ant: informal]
2: characteristic of or befitting a person in authority;
"formal duties"; "an official banquet"
3: (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" [ant: informal]
4: represented in simplified or symbolic form [syn: conventional,
schematic]
5: logically deductive; "formal proof"
6: refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a
royal court; "a courtly gentleman" [syn: courtly, elegant,
stately]
WordNet (r) 2.0
253 Moby Thesaurus words for "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
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
FORMAL
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)
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)
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