conformity

[kuhn-fawr-mi-tee]

noun

plural

conformities 

1. action in accord with prevailing social standards, attitudes, practices, etc.

2. correspondence in form, nature, or character; agreement, congruity, or accordance.

3. compliance or acquiescence; obedience.

4. (often initial capital letter),  compliance with the usages of an established church, especially the Church of England.

5. Geology.,  the relationship between adjacent conformable strata.

conformity

/ kənˈfɔːmɪtɪ /

noun

1. compliance in actions, behaviour, etc, with certain accepted standards or norms

2. correspondence or likeness in form or appearance; congruity; agreement

3. compliance with the practices of an established church

conformity

1. Agreement between an individual's behavior and a group's standards or expectations. A conformist is one who follows the majority's desires or standards. (See also beatniks, bureaucrat, organization man (see also organization man), peer group, and peer pressure.)

Other Word Forms

• anticonformity noun
• hyperconformity noun
• preconformity noun
• semiconformity noun
• superconformity noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of conformity¹

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English conformite, from Middle French, from Late Latin confōrmitās; equivalent to conform + -ity

Example Sentences

Today it’s synonymous with corporate monotony and conformity, but it actually started life as the antithesis of what it came to represent.

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The family argued that their rights, which requires the State providing education to "respect the right of parents to ensure such education is in conformity with their own religious and philosophical convictions", had been contravened.

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The book was followed by William H. Whyte’s “The Organization Man,” published in 1956, which explored how large corporations bred conformity in managers and, as a result, lost their ability to be innovative.

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But these ravers have driven all the way out here as a rejection of conformity — so why obey now?

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Though ideological conformity has corrupted many of these departments, higher education can’t do without them.

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Related Words

• obedience