formal
/ˈfɔɹ.məl/ adjective B1- In accordance with established forms. · She spoke formal English, without any dialect.
- Official. · I'd like to make a formal complaint.
- Relating to the form or structure of something. · Formal linguistics ignores the vocabulary of languages and focuses solely on their grammar.
- Relating to formation. · The formal stage is a critical part of any child's development.
- Ceremonial or traditional. · Formal wear must be worn at my wedding!
- Proper, according to strict etiquette; not casual. · He's always very formal, and I wish he'd relax a bit.
- Organized; well-structured and planned. · When they became a formal club the rowers built a small boathouse.
- In accordance with a methodological framework with well-defined rules or laws; rigorous. · Only formal proofs, which derive theorems logically from their given axioms, are considered satisfactory in modern mathematics.· A set of words can be formal cognates only if they can be derived from a common ancestor by regular sound laws.
From the library
But you know none are so formal as bankers in transacting business; I intended this money for the charity fund, and I seemed to be robbing them if I did not pay them with these precise bonds.
The two ladies entered the drawing-room with that sort of official stiffness which preludes a formal communication.
This formal announcement, which implied or appeared to imply, the approval of all the persons concerned in this momentous affair, had been preceded by a scene to which our readers must be admitted.
The village sergeant, a tall, formal, melancholy man, still held his vigil in the room of Fate.
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