formalism
strict adherence to, or observance of, prescribed or traditional forms, as in music, poetry, and art.
Religion. strong attachment to external forms and observances.
Ethics. a doctrine that acts are in themselves right or wrong regardless of consequences.
Logic, Mathematics. a doctrine, which evolved from a proposal of David Hilbert, that mathematics, including the logic used in proofs, can be based on the formal manipulation of symbols without regard to their meaning.
Origin of formalism
1Other words from formalism
- for·mal·ist, noun, adjective
- for·mal·is·tic, adjective
- for·mal·is·ti·cal·ly, adverb
- an·ti·for·mal·ist, noun, adjective
- non·for·mal·ism, noun
- non·for·mal·is·tic, adjective
- un·for·mal·is·tic, adjective
Words Nearby formalism
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024
How to use formalism in a sentence
formalism says by combining and recombining them, contextualizing them in terms of what’s being heard, musically, that’s where meaning is found.
"'Free At Last?' Please. Who Is Free?" Choreographer Bill T. Jones Reflects on a Half Century of Creative Work | Belinda Luscombe | October 1, 2021 | TimeHardy called his new formalism the “causaloid” framework, where the causaloid is the mathematical object used to calculate the probabilities of outcomes of any measurement in any region.
Quantum Mischief Rewrites the Laws of Cause and Effect | Natalie Wolchover | March 11, 2021 | Quanta MagazineAccounting for these scenarios has forced researchers to develop new mathematical formalisms and ways of thinking.
Quantum Mischief Rewrites the Laws of Cause and Effect | Natalie Wolchover | March 11, 2021 | Quanta MagazineHe was accused of “formalism,” a catch-all accusation that, like “Trotskyite,” had the ring of execution about it.
The concept is that the formalism of past summits has made meaningful conversation difficult.
At the U.S.-China Summit, Friendship Isn’t What Matters | Gordon G. Chang | June 7, 2013 | THE DAILY BEAST
Originally trained as a painter, Mthethwa brings a determined visual formalism to the portraits of his subjects in their homes.
The very origin of Khassidism was due to a protest against that cold formalism which excluded everything imaginative.
If there is any bias on the bench that is popularly and justly disliked it is a bias towards formalism and technicalities.
The Law and the Poor | Edward Abbott ParryThere was a formalism to it, there was pomp and circumstance.
Ladies and Gentlemen | Irvin S. (Irvin Shrewsbury) CobbIn Islam devotion is a strong point, formalism is its weakness.
Bahaism and Its Claims | Samuel Graham WilsonAny explanation would be futile of this branch of a forgotten formalism.
The Man in Court | Frederic DeWitt Wells
British Dictionary definitions for formalism
/ (ˈfɔːməˌlɪzəm) /
scrupulous or excessive adherence to outward form at the expense of inner reality or content
the mathematical or logical structure of a scientific argument as distinguished from its subject matter
the notation, and its structure, in which information is expressed
theatre a stylized mode of production
(in Marxist criticism) excessive concern with artistic technique at the expense of social values, etc
the philosophical theory that a mathematical statement has no meaning but that its symbols, regarded as physical objects, exhibit a structure that has useful applications: Compare logicism, intuitionism
Derived forms of formalism
- formalist, noun
- formalistic, adjective
- formalistically, adverb
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
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