From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Formality \For*mal"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Formalities}. [Cf. F. formalit['e].]
1. The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, etc.
Such [books] as are mere pieces of formality, so that if you look on them, you look though them. --Fuller.
3. Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality.
Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of formality and custom, but of conscience. --Atterbury.
4. An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode.
He was installed with all the usual formalities. --C. Middleton.
5. pl. The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal. [Obs.]
The doctors attending her in their formalities as far as Shotover. --Fuller.
6. That which is formal; the formal part.
It unties the inward knot of marriage, . . . while it aims to keep fast the outward formality. --Milton.
7. The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence.
The material part of the evil came from our father upon us, but the formality of it, the sting and the curse, is only by ourselves. --Jer. Taylor.
The formality of the vow lies in the promise made to God. --Bp. Stillingfleet.
8. (Scholastic. Philos.) The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: a requirement of etiquette or custom [syn: {formalities}]
2: a manner that strictly observes all forms and ceremonies [syn: {formalness}] [ant: {informality}]
3: compliance with formal rules
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
150 Moby Thesaurus words for "formality": Procrustean law, act, baccalaureate service, bienseance, bill, bylaw, canon, celebration, ceremonial, ceremony, circumstance, civility, code, commencement, conformity, convenance, convention, conventional usage, conventionalism, conventionality, convocation, correctness, criterion, custom, decency, decorousness, decorum, decree, demureness, dictate, dictation, duty, earnestness, edict, elegance, empty formality, enactment, etiquette, euphemism, euphuism, exactness, exercise, exercises, exquisiteness, form, form of worship, formal, formalism, formula, formulary, function, good form, goody-goodness, goody-goodyism, graduation, graduation exercises, gravity, grimness, guideline, heraldry, holy rite, inaugural, inauguration, inflexibility, initiation, institution, jus, law, law of nature, legislation, lex, liturgy, long face, maxim, measure, mode of worship, mummery, mystery, norm, norma, observance, office, order of nature, order of worship, ordinance, ordonnance, overniceness, overpreciseness, overrefinement, pedantry, performance, politesse, pomp, practice, preciosity, preciousness, precisianism, precision, prescribed form, prescript, prescription, pride, principle, procedure, propriety, protocol, punctilio, purism, regulation, religious ceremony, rigidity, rite, rite de passage, rite of passage, ritual, ritual observance, rituality, rubric, rule, ruling, sacrament, sacramental, sedateness, seemliness, seriousness, service, set form, sober-mindedness, soberness, sobersidedness, sobersides, sobriety, social convention, social usage, solemnity, solemnization, solemnness, somberness, staidness, standard, standing order, state, statute, stiffness, straight face, strictness, thoughtfulness, universal law, weightiness, wont
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