FORMALITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does formality mean? 

• FORMALITY (noun)
  The noun FORMALITY has 3 senses:

1. a requirement of etiquette or custom

2. a manner that strictly observes all forms and ceremonies

3. compliance with formal rules

  Familiarity information: FORMALITY used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FORMALITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A requirement of etiquette or custom

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

formalities; formality

Context example:

a mere formality

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

ceremonial; ceremonial occasion; ceremony; observance (a formal event performed on a special occasion)

Derivation:

formal (characteristic of or befitting a person in authority)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A manner that strictly observes all forms and ceremonies

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

formality; formalness

Context example:

the formality of his voice made the others pay him close attention

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

manner; personal manner (a way of acting or behaving)

Attribute:

formal (being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress))

informal (not formal)

formal ((of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional standards of correctness and without casual, contracted, and colloquial forms)

informal (used of spoken and written language)

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

ceremoniousness (a ceremonial manner)

stateliness (an elaborate manner of doing something)

Antonym:

informality (a manner that does not take forms and ceremonies seriously)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Compliance with formal rules

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

courtroom formality

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

abidance; compliance; conformation; conformity (acting according to certain accepted standards)

Domain member usage:

person of color; person of colour ((formal) any non-European non-white person)

herald; trumpeter ((formal) a person who announces important news)

slough of despond ((formal) extreme depression)

banausic ((formal) ordinary and not refined)

in that; in this; therein ((formal) in or into that thing or place)

hereby; herewith ((formal) by means of this)

Derivation:

formal (being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress))

 Context examples 

The purity of her life, the formality of her notions, her ignorance of the world—every thing was against me.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Lydia laughed, and said: Aye, that is just like your formality and discretion.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

This morning he was removed to a cell, and I, after going through all the police formalities, have hurried round to you to implore you to use your skill in unravelling the matter.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

There are one or two small things—mere formalities—which I must arrange with you.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

That gentleman having willingly given his consent, the final formalities which led up to these humble tournaments were concluded.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Mr. Micawber returned to the King's Bench when his case was over, as some fees were to be settled, and some formalities observed, before he could be actually released.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

I attended to all the ghastly formalities, and the urbane undertaker proved that his staff were afflicted—or blessed—with something of his own obsequious suavity.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Dick, perforce, had to go through a few stiff formalities at first, after which he calmly accepted White Fang as an addition to the premises.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But, as to the formality of taking possession in my sovereign’s name, it never came once into my thoughts; and if it had, yet, as my affairs then stood, I should perhaps, in point of prudence and self-preservation, have put it off to a better opportunity.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I was a good deal surprised by this; for we were by no means in the habit of correspondence; I had seen the man, dined with him, indeed, the night before; and I could imagine nothing in our intercourse that should justify formality of registration.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)