Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To correspond in form or character; be similar.
- v. To act or be in accord or agreement; comply: a computer that conforms to the manufacturer's advertising claims. See Synonyms at agree.
- v. To act in accordance with current customs or modes. See Synonyms at adapt.
- v. To bring into agreement or correspondence; make similar.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Conformable.
- To make of the same form or character; make like; adjust: with to: as, to conform anything to a model or a standard.
- To bring into harmony or correspondence; make agreeable; adapt; submit: often with a reflexive pronoun.
- To act conformably, compliantly, or in accordance: with to: as, to conform to the fashion or to custom.
- In English history, to comply with the usages of the Established Church: in this sense often used absolutely. See conformity, 3.
Wiktionary
- v. intransitive, of persons To act in accordance with expectations; to behave in the manner of others, especially as a result of social pressure.
- v. intransitive, etc. To be in accordance with a set of specifications or regulations, or with a policy or guideline.
- v. transitive To make similar in form or nature; to make suitable for a purpose; to adapt.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Of the same form; similar in import; conformable.
- v. To shape in accordance with; to make like; to bring into harmony or agreement with; -- usually with
to orunto . - v. To be in accord or harmony; to comply; to be obedient; to submit; -- with
to orwith . - v. (Eng. Eccl. Hist.) To comply with the usages of the Established Church; to be a conformist.
WordNet 3.0
- v. be similar, be in line with
- v. adapt or conform oneself to new or different conditions
Etymologies
- From Middle English conformen, from Old French conformer, from Latin conformāre ("to mould, to shape after") (Wiktionary)
- Middle English conformen, from Old French conformer, from Latin cōnfōrmāre, to shape after : com-, com- + fōrmāre, to shape (from fōrma, shape). (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Big Government forcing private institutions to conform is totally the way to go!”
“Sarcastro: Big Government forcing private institutions to conform is totally the way to go!”
“But the need to conform is greater among the young.”
“Ok, so your 'friend' has been drummed out of his family, perhaps the pressure on him to conform is huge but I doubt that the family will really turn their back on him.”
“Thus to me to try to overly conform is plain wrong, because you are negating part of your individuality.”
“None of this has anything much to do with pronunciation, as everyone except pedants is likely, eventually, to make the word conform to their language, in colloquial usage at least.”
“China, dine contentedly upon horse-steak in Paris, swallow their beef uncooked in Germany, maintain an unwinking gravity over the hottest curry in India, smoke their hookah gratefully in Turkey, mount an elephant in Ceylon, and, in short, conform gracefully to any native custom, however strange it may appear to him.”
“Such agreements shall be approved by said board only when the terms conform to the provisions of this act.”
Internet Archive: Acts and resolves passed by the General Court
“They pick and choose which bits of their translation of the Bible that they want to unthinkingly follow and anyone who doesn’t conform is a damned heretic.”
Think Progress » War on Christmas Fraud Exposed: The Silent Night “Rewrite” That Wasn’t
“I'll bet Ferlito and Monaghan have been advised, ad nauseam, about having "work done" and their seeming refusal to conform is to be applauded.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘conform’.
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Psychology
Chapter 1
rigorous, occurrence, maze, divers, intellectual, expansion, all in all, sensation, introspection, radical, orientation, nurture and 174 more...
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EN - academic vocabulary
Use these and get promoted
abandon, abandonment, abnormally, abstract, abstraction, abstractly, abstracts, academia, academic, academically, academics, academies and 3119 more...
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EN - eloquence in public speaking
Key words from "The Training of a Public Speaker" by Grenville Kleiser (New York and London, 1920)
beget, imago, Vespasian, languid, studied, judgment, dwindle, artifice, contribute, observe, sonorous, gladiator and 264 more...
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...conferral, stateless, person, voting, right, subsidiarity, Latvia, Malta, Slovenia, Lithuania, Finland, Estonia and 2614 more...
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fifi
verbs Adj Adv noun
indulge, convene, solve, dissolve, prospect, prospective, allege, resolve, accountable, administration, amid, agenda and 407 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, C
cryptoxanthin, convent, calcar, chuckle, campanile, covet, complexion, campestral, chirography, counterscarp, caliginous, catabolism and 722 more...
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frequent toefl
Words that I do not know or unsure for toefl
appurtenances, aptitude, arbitrary, arboretum, argot, arrears, avocation, avuncular, badger, bait, warden, bane and 428 more...
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Lesson 3
alter, analyze, ancient, annoying, anticipate, conform, detect, enrich, intensify, intolerable, observe, ongoing and 3 more...
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i.X (words that I hate)
words that I hate.
Tweets
Looking for tweets for conform.
PossibleUnderscore Reader, you must know that an interesting fate (sometimes involving rats, sometimes not) awaits almost everyone, mouse or man, who does not conform.
-The Tale Of Despereaux, Kate DiCamillo Aug 4, 2009
jeen0809 She has always been a conformist. Apr 14, 2007