Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Rigorous or excessive adherence to recognized forms, as in religion or art.
- n. An instance of rigorous or excessive adherence to recognized forms.
- n. A method of aesthetic analysis that emphasizes structural elements and artistic techniques rather than content, especially in literary works.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The character of being formal; strict adherence to or observance of prescribed or recognized form, rule, style, etiquette, or the like; excessive attachment to conventional usage, or (especially in religion) to external forms and observances; hence, artificiality or cold stiffness of manner or behavior: as, judicial formalism; formalism in art; the formalism of pedantry or of court life; cold formalism in public worship.
- n. In philos.: The system which denies the existence of matter and recognizes form only; phenomenal idealism.
- n. A belief in the sufficiency of formal logic, especially of the traditional syllogistic, for the purposes of human thought.
Wiktionary
- n. Strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice etc.
- n. computing One of several alternative computational paradigms for a given theory.
- n. literature An approach to interpretation and/or evaluation focused on the (usually linguistic) structure of a literary work rather than on the contexts of its origin or reception.
- n. music The tendency to elevate formal above expressive value in music, as in serialism.
- n. mathematics, physics A particular mathematical or scientific theory or description of a given state or effect.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The practice or the doctrine of strict adherence to, or dependence on, external forms, esp. in matters of religion.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (philosophy) the philosophical theory that formal (logical or mathematical) statements have no meaning but that its symbols (regarded as physical entities) exhibit a form that has useful applications
- n. the doctrine that formal structure rather than content is what should be represented
- n. the practice of scrupulous adherence to prescribed or external forms
Etymologies
- From formal + -ism. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“But what has been lost in the abandonment of this kind of formalism is any serious attention to the intrinsic value of reading works of literature as opposed to all other "texts.”
“The purpose of mathematical formalism is to cause the writer to not only be logically tight, but also specific enough to avoid arguments over semantics.”
Caldwell, Hayek, and Math, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“This story has been repeated innumerable times, and structures how we think about law and judging today: formalism is naïve, bad, or false; every sensible and candid person is realistic about judging.”
“By the way, on the topic of women in formalism, I am delighted to see that Kevin is reissuing AFFC.”
Numbers Trouble : A.E. Stallings : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
“The fact that these theories seek to extend the formalism is considered as violation of the principle of parsimony by some.”
“Although I am in full support of Gay rights (I dont think marriage should be a state institution in the first place) some degree of judicial formalism is absolutely necessary to mantain balance of powers so I am also in full support of this courts decision.”
“Similarly, whether or not legal formalism is metaphysically correct, there are pragmatic arguments in its favor, ably put forth by Prof. Tamanaha.”
“In this book I am going to explain real-world security using the techniques, processes, and formalism from the computer world, without assuming any computer knowledge.”
“These "choke" or "smother" the word; drawing off so much of one's attention, absorbing so much of one's interest, and using up so much of one's time, that only the dregs of these remain for spiritual things, and a fagged, hurried, and heartless formalism is at length all the religion of such persons.”
“As to the vocabulary used to render the crematorium, it is true that it recalls the formalism of Meier's work, but to venture calling that kind of formalism racist is strange to me.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘formalism’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Keywords, by Raymond Williams
From a book about life and death.
aesthetic, alienation, art, behaviour, bourgeois, bureaucracy, capitalism, career, charity, city, civilization, class and 99 more...
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-ism's -logies
acosmism, absurdism, absolutism, ableism, aestheticism, alarmism, allotheism, anachronism, animalculism, analogism, animatism, animism and 464 more...
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Beautiful Music
a cappella, accelerando, accompagnato, adagio, ad libitum, agitato, aleatory, alla breve, allegro, allemande, alto, andante and 548 more...
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INTERP - VOCABULARY
The vocabulary of conference interpreting. I commend this list to those who want to know more about the profession and to those who wish to organize their knowledge about the profession. To aspirin...
retour language, A-language, B-language, C-language, relay language, take sy on relay, language booth, booth meeting, mic, mike, mission, freelance interpr... and 2086 more...
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Sacred & Superstitious Philosophical ...
Religious, philosophical, supernatural terms and words.
san graal, occult, sangraal, deicide, deipotent, demonarchy, demonosopher, deodate, peri, rewilding, tzitzimime, metapsychic and 31 more...
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Dismantling Modernism
unequivocal, realism, positivism, handmaiden, naturalize, repository, reify, indeterminate, instrumentality, attest, omniscience, counter revolution and 36 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for formalism.
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