being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress); pay one's formal respects; formal dress; a formal ball; the requirement was only formal and often ignored; a formal education'
(of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional standards of correctness and without casual, contracted, and colloquial forms; the paper was written in formal English'
formal (adj.)
a lavish dance requiring formal attire
[ Syn: ball ]
a gown for evening wear
[ Syn: dinner dress , dinner dress , dinner gown , dinner gown , evening gown , evening gown ]
formal (n.)
characteristic of or befitting a person in authority; formal duties; an official banquet'
represented in simplified or symbolic form
[ Syn: conventional , schematic ]
logically deductive; formal proof'
refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a royal court; a courtly gentleman