FORMATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does formation mean? 

• FORMATION (noun)
  The noun FORMATION has 7 senses:

1. an arrangement of people or things acting as a unit

2. the act of fabricating something in a particular shape

3. the act of forming or establishing something

4. (geology) the geological features of the earth

5. a particular spatial arrangement

6. natural process that causes something to form

7. creation by mental activity

  Familiarity information: FORMATION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORMATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An arrangement of people or things acting as a unit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Context example:

a formation of planes

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

arrangement (an orderly grouping (of things or persons) considered as a unit; the result of arranging)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

line (a formation of people or things one behind another)

rear (the back of a military formation or procession)

head (the front of a military formation or procession)

flank; wing (the side of military or naval formation)

center (the middle of a military or naval formation)

secondary (the defensive football players who line up behind the linemen)

backfield (the offensive football players who line up behind the linemen)

military formation (a formation of troops)

flight (a formation of aircraft in flight)

line (a formation of people or things one beside another)

Derivation:

form (create (as an entity))

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of fabricating something in a particular shape

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

formation; shaping

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

fabrication; manufacture; manufacturing (the act of making something (a product) from raw materials)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

turning (the activity of shaping something on a lathe)

grooving; rifling (the cutting of spiral grooves on the inside of the barrel of a firearm)

granulation (the act of forming something into granules or grains)

metalwork; metalworking (the activity of making things out of metal in a skillful manner)

forging (shaping metal by heating and hammering)

filing (the act of using a file (as in shaping or smoothing an object))

Derivation:

form (give shape or form to)

form (make something, usually for a specific function)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of forming or establishing something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

constitution; establishment; formation; organisation; organization

Context example:

he still remembers the organization of the club

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

beginning; commencement; start (the act of starting something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

collectivisation; collectivization (the organization of a nation or economy on the basis of collectivism)

communisation; communization (the organization of a nation of the basis of communism)

federation (the act of constituting a political unity out of a number of separate states or colonies or provinces so that each member retains the management of its internal affairs)

colonisation; colonization; settlement (the act of colonizing; the establishment of colonies)

unionisation; unionization (act of forming labor unions)

Derivation:

form (make something, usually for a specific function)

form (create (as an entity))

Sense 4

Meaning:

(geology) the geological features of the earth

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Synonyms:

formation; geological formation

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

object; physical object (a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow)

Domain category:

geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

mineral vein; vein (a layer of ore between layers of rock)

oceanfront (land bordering an ocean)

chain; chain of mountains; mountain chain; mountain range; range; range of mountains (a series of hills or mountains)

relict (geological feature that is a remnant of a pre-existing formation after other parts have disappeared)

ridge; ridgeline (a long narrow range of hills)

ridge (a long narrow natural elevation on the floor of the ocean)

shore (the land along the edge of a body of water)

incline; side; slope (an elevated geological formation)

fountain; natural spring; outflow; outpouring; spring (a natural flow of ground water)

scree; talus (a sloping mass of loose rocks at the base of a cliff)

crater; volcanic crater (a bowl-shaped geological formation at the top of a volcano)

wall (a vertical (or almost vertical) smooth rock face (as of a cave or mountain))

groundwater level; water level; water table (underground surface below which the ground is wholly saturated with water)

cliff; drop; drop-off (a steep high face of rock)

depression; natural depression (a sunken or depressed geological formation)

aquifer (underground bed or layer yielding ground water for wells and springs etc)

beach (an area of sand sloping down to the water of a sea or lake)

cave (a geological formation consisting of an underground enclosure with access from the surface of the ground or from the sea)

delta (a low triangular area of alluvial deposits where a river divides before entering a larger body of water)

diapir (a domed rock formation where a core of rock has moved upward and pierced through the more brittle overlying strata)

folium (a thin layer or stratum of (especially metamorphic) rock)

foreshore (the part of the seashore between the highwater mark and the low-water mark)

ice mass (a large mass of ice)

lakefront (land bordering a lake)

massif (a block of the earth's crust bounded by faults and shifted to form peaks of a mountain range)

monocline (a geological formation in which all strata are inclined in the same direction)

mouth (the point where a stream issues into a larger body of water)

elevation; natural elevation (a raised or elevated geological formation)

Instance hyponyms:

Pillars of Hercules (the two promontories at the eastern end of the Strait of Gibraltar; according to legend they were formed by Hercules)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A particular spatial arrangement

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

arrangement; placement (the spatial property of the way in which something is placed)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

raster (the rectangular formation of parallel scanning lines that guide the electron beam on a television screen or a computer monitor)

rig; rigging (formation of masts, spars, sails, etc., on a vessel)

split ((tenpin bowling) a divided formation of pins left standing after the first bowl)

Derivation:

form (give shape or form to)

form (make something, usually for a specific function)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Natural process that causes something to form

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural processes

Context example:

the formation of pseudopods

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

action; activity; natural action; natural process (a process existing in or produced by nature (rather than by the intent of human beings))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

encrustation; incrustation (the formation of a crust)

reticulation ((photography) the formation of a network of cracks or wrinkles in a photographic emulsion)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Creation by mental activity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

the formation of memories

Hypernyms ("formation" is a kind of...):

creating by mental acts (the act of creating something by thinking)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "formation"):

affixation (formation of a word by means of an affix)

Derivation:

form (develop into a distinctive entity)

 Context examples 

This protein is involved in microtubule formation.

(Midline-1, NCI Thesaurus)

This project is an attempt to measure galactic magnetic fields and learn how they influence the way that interstellar gases are ejected from galaxy disks and contribute to galaxy formation and evolution.

(Giant magnetic ropes seen in Whale Galaxy's halo, National Science Foundation)

Youngsters with a high ScreenQ score had lower brain white matter quality, which affects the formation of myelin.

(Too Much Screen Time Changes Structure of Toddlers' Brains, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)

A protein family whose members bind to microtubule-associated protein 1A and 1B and are involved in the formation of autophagosomes.

(Microtubule-Associated Proteins 1A/1B Light Chain 3, NCI Thesaurus)

Nectins transduce signals through Cdc42 and Rac, which reorganize the actin cytoskeleton, regulate the formation of AJs, and strengthen cell-cell adhesion.

(Adherens Junction Assembly Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

"This region is telling astronomers that there's something we don't understand about star formation," said Rebull.

(Spitzer Studies a Stellar Playground With a Long History, NASA)

It is characterized by the presence of myxoid stroma formation.

(Adult Myxoid Chondrosarcoma, NCI Thesaurus)

Bcl-2 and Bcl-xL prevent pore formation, blocking apoptosis.

(Mitochondria in Apoptotic Signaling Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/BIOCARTA)

A series of reactions that result in formation of a pore, composed of complement proteins C5b, C6, C7, C8, and C9, in the membrane of a pathogenic cell.

(Activation of Membrane Attack Complex, NCI Thesaurus)

In a previous study, Huang and his team investigated a type of brain activity called sharp-wave ripples, which play a direct role in spatial learning and memory formation in mammals.

(Predicting Alzheimer's-like memory loss before it strikes, National Science Foundation)