Form Meaning
/fɔːm/Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounTo do with shape.
nounTo do with shape., The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
Sentence Examples
Democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried.
You should try to form the habit of using your dictionaries.
Music is quite unlike any other art form.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Due to rising moist air cooling rapidly, rain clouds will ____ over the mountains.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please complete the application ____ and submit it to the office by the end of the week.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”). In sense "division grouping school students" (now dated), derived from public school nomenclature later adopted by state schools. It is sometimes said to be from the sense of "bench", where students of certain ages would sit together, though this is disputed, or alternatively from the sense of "established method of expression or practice".
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it."
— 1699, William Temple, Heads designed for an essay on conversations:
"The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume."
— 1892, James Yoxall, chapter 5, in The Lonely Pyramid:
"As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field."
— 2013 May 10, Audrey Garric, “Urban canopies let nature bloom”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 22, page 30:
"And there with syr Launcelot wrapped his mantel aboute his arme wel and surely and by thenne they had geten a grete fourme oute of the halle and there with all they rasshed at the dore […]."
— 1485, Thomas Malory, Le Morte Darthur Book XX, Chapter iv, leaf 401v:
"In the hall. One large table, with frame. 10s. ij cobbordes 8s. j fourme, j chaire, and j kenninge measure, 12d."
— 1585–1586 January 18, chapter LXIII, in [William Greenwell], editor, Wills and Inventories from the Registry at Durham. Part II (The Publications of the Surtees Society; XXXVIII), Durham: George Andrews, Durham; London: Whittaker and Co.; T. and W. Boone; Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons, published 1860, →OCLC, page 132:
Explore More A1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Due to rising moist air cooling rapidly, rain clouds will ____ over the mountains.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Please complete the application ____ and submit it to the office by the end of the week.