formative

American  

[fawr-muh-tiv] / ˈfɔr mə tɪv /

adjective

1. giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding.

   a formative process in manufacturing.

2. relating to formation or development.

   a child's most formative years.

   Synonyms:

   impressionable, receptive, susceptible

3. Biology.

   1. capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation.

      formative tissue.

   2. concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.

4. Education. continuous and diagnostic, and covering specifically the current material with which the student is actively engaged; ongoing: formative evaluation;

   formative assessment;

   formative evaluation;

   formative feedback.

5. Grammar. relating to a formative, an affix that indicates the part of speech of a derived word.

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noun

1. Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.

2. Linguistics. (in generative grammar) any element, as a word, affix, or inflectional ending, functioning as a minimal syntactic unit that can be used in forming larger constructions.

formative British  

/ ˈfɔːmətɪv /

adjective

1. of or relating to formation, development, or growth

   formative years

2. shaping; moulding

   a formative experience

3. (of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation

4. functioning in the formation of derived, inflected, or compound words

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noun

1. an inflectional or derivational affix

2. (in generative grammar) any of the minimum units of a sentence that have syntactic function

Other Word Forms

• formatively adverb
• formativeness noun
• nonformative adjective
• nonformatively adverb
• subformative adjective
• subformatively adverb
• subformativeness noun
• unformative adjective

Etymology

Origin of formative

First recorded in 1480–90; from Old French formatif (masculine), formative (feminine); formation, -ive

Example Sentences

"The four planets we studied will likely contract into 'super-Earths' and 'sub-Neptunes' -- the most common types of planets in our galaxy, but we've never had such a clear picture of them in their formative years."

From Science Daily

In Florence, where the artist grew up and spent his formative years, drawing was considered fundamental.

From The Wall Street Journal

The author also describes the formative decades when Mr. Sanders—born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to unhappy blue-collar Jewish parents—scrapped his way through high school and college before moving to rural Vermont in 1968.

From The Wall Street Journal

But the setback, in some ways, proved formative.

From BBC

This process led to the birth of the first stars and marked the start of the cosmic dawn, a formative period in the universe's history.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• developmental