formal

CEFRB1

/ˈfɔɹməl/

adjective

Türkçe translations

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In plain English

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At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

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Extra meanings

In context

I utterly despise formal writing!
Formal linguistics ignores the vocabulary of languages and focuses solely on their grammar.
I'd like to make a formal complaint.

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The word in print, with each source given in full.

Well, I open up the door / And much to my surprise / The girls were wearin' formals / And the boys were wearin' ties
1965, Shadow Morton, “Sophisticated Boom Boom”, performed by The Shangri-Las
THE THREE DOMINANT FORMS IN METALSMITHING […] At present, there are but three basic volumetric forms dominating the work of metalsmiths, the spherical (usually in its most practical form, the domical), the cylindrical, and the cubical. […] The possibilities for further variations on them are all but exhausted, there being little chance to express new and unusual ideas within the framework of such limited choices. As a result, much of twentieth-century metalsmithing has relied on surface enrichment rather than formal development for its originality.
1978, Heikki Seppä, Form Emphasis for Metalsmiths, [Kent, Oh.]: Kent State University Press, →ISBN, page 1

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From Middle English formel, borrowed from Old French formel, from Latin fōrmālis, from fōrma (“form”); equivalent to form + -al.