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Formality   /fɔrmˈæləti/   Listen
noun
Formality  n.  (pl. formalities)  
1.
The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, etc.
2.
Form without substance. "Such (books) as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them, you look though them."
3.
Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality. "Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of formality and custom, but of conscience."
4.
An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode. "He was installed with all the usual formalities."
5.
pl. The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal. (Obs.) "The doctors attending her in their formalities as far as Shotover."
6.
That which is formal; the formal part. "It unties the inward knot of marriage,... while it aims to keep fast the outward formality."
7.
The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence. "The material part of the evil came from our father upon us, but the formality of it, the sting and the curse, is only by ourselves." "The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to God."
8.
(Scholastic. Philos.) The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Formality" Quotes from Famous Books



... herald should be sent to declare it at the frontier of the enemy. When Rome wished to make war on Pyrrhus, king of Epirus, who had his kingdom on the other side of the Adriatic, they were much embarrassed to execute this formality. They hit on the following: a subject of Pyrrhus, perhaps a deserter, bought a field in Rome; they then assumed that this territory had become territory of Epirus, and the herald threw his javelin on this land and ...
— History Of Ancient Civilization • Charles Seignobos

... from Alice, and this he at once opened. He did it very calmly, but without any of that bravado of indifference with which George Vavasor had received Alice's letter from Westmoreland. "It is right that I should tell you at once," said Alice, rushing into the middle of her subject without even the formality of the customary address—"It is right that I should tell you at once that—." Oh, the difficulty which she had encountered when her words had carried her as far as this!—"that my cousin, George Vavasor, has repeated to me ...
— Can You Forgive Her? • Anthony Trollope

... jewels of large size, which, as they glittered around, gave an almost dazzling brilliancy to this sumptuous chamber, thus characterizing the amusements of the man when divested of the ceremony and formality of the sultan. ...
— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 12, - Issue 342, November 22, 1828 • Various

... here?" he inquired.—He adopted the familiar tu. The formality of vous was out of the question to a woman he must get ...
— The Muse of the Department • Honore de Balzac

... write verses was decisive proof of his madness. Mr. Skrimshaw, therefore, had little trouble in consigning Clare to another lunatic asylum. All that was necessary was to engage the help of a brother-doctor to go through a slight legal formality. This was soon done, and 'Fenwick Skrimshaw,' together with 'William Page,' both of Market Deeping, signed the due certificate that John Clare was to be kept under restraint at a madhouse, for the definitely stated reason of having written poetry, or, ...
— The Life of John Clare • Frederick Martin


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