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I am actually extremely casual in certain environments. But one of the reasons I like living in London, I like the formality of it, as compared to the formality of America - or informality. I like putting on a suit. I like putting on a tie.
Tom Ford

Meaning of "formality" in the English dictionary

Dictionary
DICTIONARY
section

PRONUNCIATION OF FORMALITY

formality  [fɔːˈmælɪtɪ] play
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GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF FORMALITY

noun
adjective
verb
adverb
pronoun
preposition
conjunction
determiner
exclamation
Formality is a noun.
A noun is a type of word the meaning of which determines reality. Nouns provide the names for all things: people, objects, sensations, feelings, etc.

WHAT DOES FORMALITY MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Formality

A formality is an established procedure or set of specific behaviors and utterances, conceptually similar to a ritual although typically secular and less involved. A formality may be as simple as a handshake upon making new acquaintainces in Western culture to the carefully defined procedure of bows, handshakes, formal greetings, and business card exchanges that may mark two businessmen being introduced in Japan. In legal and diplomatic circles, formalities include such matters as greeting an arriving head of state with the appropriate national anthem. Cultures and groups within cultures often have varying degrees of formality which can often prove a source of frustration or unintentional insult when people of different expectations or preferences interact. Those from relatively informal backgrounds may find formality to be empty and hypocritical, or unnecessarily demanding. Those from relatively formal backgrounds may find informal cultures hard to deal with, as their carefully refined and nuanced behaviors go completely unnoticed. The difference between formality and politeness is often a point of confusion for those from relatively informal cultures.

Definition of formality in the English dictionary

The first definition of formality in the dictionary is a requirement of rule, custom, etiquette, etc. Other definition of formality is the condition or quality of being formal or conventional. Formality is also strict or excessive observance of form, ceremony, etc.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH FORMALITY


abnormality
ˌæbnɔːˈmælɪtɪ
animality
ˌænɪˈmælɪtɪ
dismality
dɪzˈmælɪtɪ
femality
fiːˈmælɪtɪ
functionality
ˌfʌŋkʃənˈælɪtɪ
hospitality
ˌhɒspɪˈtælɪtɪ
informality
ˌɪnfɔːˈmælɪtɪ
locality
ləʊˈkælɪtɪ
lognormality
ˌlɒɡnɔːˈmælɪtɪ
mammality
məˈmælɪtɪ
normality
nɔːˈmælɪtɪ
optimality
ˌɒptɪˈmælɪtɪ
paranormality
ˌpærənɔːˈmælɪtɪ
personality
ˌpɜːsəˈnælɪtɪ
phantasmality
ˌfæntəzˈmælɪtɪ
primality
praɪˈmælɪtɪ
reality
rɪˈælɪtɪ
spirituality
ˌspɪrɪtjʊˈælɪtɪ
subnormality
ˌsʌbnɔːˈmælɪtɪ
supernormality
ˌsuːpənɔːˈmælɪtɪ

WORDS THAT BEGIN LIKE FORMALITY

formal theory
formaldehyde
formalin
formaline
formalisable
formalisation
formaliser
formalism
formalist
formalistic
formalistically
formaliter
formalities
formalizable
formalization
formalize
formalizer
formally
formally valid
formalness

WORDS THAT END LIKE FORMALITY

ability
air quality
augmented reality
confidentiality
equality
in reality
inequality
infant mortality
legality
low-quality
mentality
morality
mortality
municipality
nationality
originality
plurality
quality
sexuality
speciality
vitality

Synonyms and antonyms of formality in the English dictionary of synonyms

SYNONYMS

SYNONYMS OF «FORMALITY»

The following words have a similar or identical meaning as «formality» and belong to the same grammatical category.
synonyms of formality

Translation of «formality» into 25 languages

TRANSLATOR
online translator

TRANSLATION OF FORMALITY

Find out the translation of formality to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.
The translations of formality from English to other languages presented in this section have been obtained through automatic statistical translation; where the essential translation unit is the word «formality» in English.

Translator English - Chinese

礼节
1,325 millions of speakers

Translator English - Spanish

formalidad
570 millions of speakers

English

formality
510 millions of speakers

Translator English - Hindi

औपचारिकता
380 millions of speakers
ar

Translator English - Arabic

إجْرَاءٌ شَكْلِيّ
280 millions of speakers

Translator English - Russian

формальность
278 millions of speakers

Translator English - Portuguese

formalidade
270 millions of speakers

Translator English - Bengali

আনুষ্ঠানিকতা
260 millions of speakers

Translator English - French

formalité
220 millions of speakers

Translator English - Malay

Formaliti
190 millions of speakers

Translator English - German

Formalität
180 millions of speakers

Translator English - Japanese

儀礼的行為
130 millions of speakers

Translator English - Korean

격식
85 millions of speakers

Translator English - Javanese

Formalitas
85 millions of speakers
vi

Translator English - Vietnamese

bài diễn văn/hành động trịnh trọng
80 millions of speakers

Translator English - Tamil

சம்பிரதாயம்
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Marathi

औपचारिकता
75 millions of speakers

Translator English - Turkish

formalite
70 millions of speakers

Translator English - Italian

formalità
65 millions of speakers

Translator English - Polish

formalność
50 millions of speakers

Translator English - Ukrainian

формальність
40 millions of speakers

Translator English - Romanian

formalitate
30 millions of speakers
el

Translator English - Greek

τυπικότητα
15 millions of speakers
af

Translator English - Afrikaans

formaliteit
14 millions of speakers
sv

Translator English - Swedish

formalitet
10 millions of speakers
no

Translator English - Norwegian

formalitet
5 millions of speakers

Trends of use of formality

TRENDS

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «FORMALITY»

The term «formality» is quite widely used and occupies the 43.114 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.
0
100%
FREQUENCY
Quite widely used
80
/100
The map shown above gives the frequency of use of the term «formality» in the different countries.
Principal search tendencies and common uses of formality
List of principal searches undertaken by users to access our English online dictionary and most widely used expressions with the word «formality».

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «FORMALITY» OVER TIME

The graph expresses the annual evolution of the frequency of use of the word «formality» during the past 500 years. Its implementation is based on analysing how often the term «formality» appears in digitalised printed sources in English between the year 1500 and the present day.

Examples of use in the English literature, quotes and news about formality

EXAMPLES

10 QUOTES WITH «FORMALITY»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word formality.
1
Waris Ahluwalia
I'm an American searching for some sort of parameters, a way of life - I'm looking for a slight formality, for a place where you can never be overdressed.
2
Eric Clapton
I listened to King Oliver and I listened to Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Thelonious Monk, Charles Mingus, John Coltrane, Archie Shepp... I listened to everything I could that came from that place that they call the blues but, in formality, isn't necessarily the blues.
3
David Copperfield
Marriage is like a formality for me.
4
Emilio Estevez
I believe the death of Bobby Kennedy was in many ways the death of decency in America. I think it was the death of manners and formality, the death of poetry and the death of a dream.
5
Bobby Flay
Grilling takes the formality out of entertaining. Everyone wants to get involved.
6
Tom Ford
I am actually extremely casual in certain environments. But one of the reasons I like living in London, I like the formality of it, as compared to the formality of America - or informality. I like putting on a suit. I like putting on a tie.
7
Willie Geist
I am one of the five best parallel parkers in the United States of America. Dead serious. It's to the point now where I look back when pulling into the spot only as a formality.
8
Werner Herzog
I despise formal restaurants. I find all of that formality to be very base and vile. I would much rather eat potato chips on the sidewalk.
9
Adam McKay
Every time a pundit or elected official is on any TV news program, it should be a polite formality to mention that GE has made such and such billions off the war in Iraq by selling arms or that Murdoch is a right-wing activist with a clear stake in who wins and who taxes his profits the least.
10
Radha Mitchell
We've become much more casual and much more relaxed in social interactions, where there was a formality and maybe a kind of respect at that time that doesn't exist now.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «FORMALITY»

Discover the use of formality in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to formality and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.
1
When Formality Works: Authority and Abstraction in Law and ...
He points out a wide range of examples where this is the case, including architectural blueprints, immigration law, the construction of common law by appeals courts, Fannie Mae's secondary mortgage market, and scientific paradigms and ...
Arthur L. Stinchcombe, 2001
2
Gender in Bolivian Production: Reducing Differences in ...
Bolivia's informal economic sector is the largest in Latin America, and women-owned businesses tend to be overrepresented in the informal sector and to be less profitable than firms in the formal sector.
‎2009
3
Increasing Formality and Productivity of Bolivian Firms
This book presents qualitative and quantitative analyses on Bolivia's informal sector, the reasons why firms are informal, and the impact of normalization on their profitability.
‎2009
4
Formality of the Little $N$-disks Operad:
Pascal Lambrechts, Ismar Volić. that sends a configuration of n m-disks to the configuration of n N-disks where the center of each N-disk is the image under ε of the center of the corresponding m-disk and has the same radius. This clearly ...
Pascal Lambrechts, Ismar Volić, 2014
5
A mere formality: a novel
When Cynthia becomes dissatisfied with her marriage to Clay Edwards and suspects that he is unfaithful, she tries to take control of her life
Barbara Howell, 1982
6
The World a Global Village: Intercultural Competence in ...
Formality. Leech and Svartvik (1994: 29) define formal language as “the type of language we publicly use for some serious purpose”, as in official reports, business letters and academic writing. In a similar vein, Fairclough (1989: 65) describes ...
Katja Lochtman, Jenny Kappel, 2008
7
Liberty, authority, formality: political ideas and culture, ...
The essays in this volume are all inspired by the historical scholarship of J.C. Davis.
John Morrow, Jonathan Scott, 2008
8
True Religion Delineated; Or, Experimental Religion, ...
... Demolished, and the Truth, as it is in Jesus, Explained and Proved ... Joseph Bellamy. TRUE RELIGION DELINEATED AND Distinguisloed from all Counterfeits, i EXPERIMENTAL RELIGION, Distinguished from Formality on the one hand,
Joseph Bellamy, 1788
9
A Theory of Precedent: From Analytical Positivism to a ...
legal deliberation.36 If a legal argument cannot be overridden by some countervailing arguments of an axiological and/or teleological kind, a high degree of mandatory formality is entailed; whereas a low degree of mandatory formality is, ...
Raimo Siltala, 2000
10
Royal Horticultural Society's New Classic Gardens: Formality ...
A dynamic new approach to gardening, New Classic Gardens explores how traditional formal design is being reinterpreted to suit todayís small-scale outdoor rooms and reflect the tastes and lifestyles of gardeners in the twenty-first century ...
Jill Billington, 2000

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «FORMALITY»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term formality is used in the context of the following news items.
1
KAT Bench in Kalaburagi: Cabinet nod only a formality now, says …
KAT Bench in Kalaburagi: Cabinet nod only a formality now, says ... of the Cabinet was only a formality now as the Chief Minister himself had ... «The Hindu, Jul 15»
2
Barton Hill Hotel goes on the auction block; owners say it's a formality
Barton Hill Hotel goes on the auction block; owners say it's a formality. The owners of the Barton Hill Hotel don't expect any other bidders at the ... «Buffalo News, Jul 15»
3
Vk On Sports :: Keith Thurman calls out Floyd Mayweather after fight
In what has become a formality with the most talented welterweights in the world, Thurman took the chance to call out pound-for-pound king ... «SportsBlog.com, Jul 15»
4
Wimbledon champ Serena Williams on the brink of golden Grand …
Not that taking her sixth Wimbledon – and first since 2012 – was a formality. In fact Williams was made to fight from start to finish after losing her ... «Daily Star, Jul 15»
5
For the record | News | The Guardian
... the company was set up in 2005 he agreed to act as company secretary on the basis that it was a purely administrative role and a formality. «The Guardian, Jul 15»
6
Shenhua must start development before October 2016 | afr.com
... Roberts said the NSW government had "almost no discretion" in this process, which sources said was usually an administrative formality. «The Australian Financial Review, Jul 15»
7
Fabian Delph had plenty of reasons to stay at Aston Villa - ESPN FC
... was undergoing a medical. Unhappy fans braced themselves for the inevitable announcement -- the sale of the captain seemed a formality. «ESPN FC, Jul 15»
8
Manchester United and Bayern Munich Confirm Bastian … - 90min
The deal is subject to a medical and personal terms, but it's thought that those steps are just a formality at this point. It was reported on Friday ... «90min, Jul 15»
9
Surack not too busy to volunteer | Local | Journal Gazette
But it's mostly a formality. “I don't think there's ever been a time when I've said, 'No, that's not a good organization,' ” Lisa Surack said. «Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, Jul 15»
10
RGS Guildford celebrate schools cricket festival triumph - Get Surrey
Victory was by no means a formality on such a true pitch but Duncan Ashworth's 3-24 dismembered the top order, his swing taking advantage ... «Get Surrey, Jul 15»

REFERENCE
« EDUCALINGO. Formality [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/formality>. Apr 2024 ».
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