[ UK /fˈɔːmə‍l/ ]
[ US /ˈfɔɹməɫ/ ]
NOUN
  1. a lavish dance requiring formal attire
  2. a gown for evening wear
ADJECTIVE
  1. being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress)
    a formal ball
    formal dress
    the requirement was only formal and often ignored
    pay one's formal respects
    a formal education
  2. characteristic of or befitting a person in authority
    an official banquet
    formal duties
  3. logically deductive
    formal proof
  4. (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
  5. refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court
    a courtly gentleman
  6. represented in simplified or symbolic form
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How To Use formal In A Sentence

  • There are a few formalities to be gone through before you enter a foreign country.
  • When the Mexican chair of the meeting declared the talks formally closed there were whoops of delight from the African delegates.
  • Only a very strong, perhaps only a globally dominant, power can sustain informal empire in the long run.
  • For example, it was embodied in a system of "informal economics". Critical Social Research
  • In other words, he was responsible for formal receptions - known as levees - and dinners.
  • When faced with serious disasters, countries often declare a formal state of emergency.
  • The watchdog plans to issue formal regulatory guidance setting out how companies should handle endowment complaints and assess where compensation is due.
  • However, the emphasis on structural constraints and formal controls provides only a partial view.
  • Any attempt to disprove the theory of evolution using thermodynamics will require proper formalisms.
  • The formal dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991 did not automatically change any of that for the better.
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