conformity

American  

[kuhn-fawr-mi-tee] / kənˈfɔr mɪ ti /

noun

conformities plural

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 British  

/ 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 Cultural  

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

Etymology

Origin of conformity

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

Explanation

If all your friends wear jeans to school and you wear checkered slacks, you could say you reject conformity — doing the same thing as everyone else. Conformity usually refers to people's behavior or looks, but it can also be used to describe something that matches the form of something else — for example, a one-story house built in conformity to the low-slung buildings that surround it. It's common for conformity to follow the word in.

Example Sentences

Whether civics institutes will support discourse across ideological lines or mimic the ideological conformity they decry remains to be seen.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 19, 2026

In a May 5 ruling seen by AFP, the court said VW "failed in its obligation of conformity" by selling nearly 950,000 vehicles equipped with the devices in France between 2007 and 2015.

From Barron's • May 12, 2026

Likewise, many well-known geniuses like Billy Wilder, Otto Preminger and Fritz Lang, who were chased out of Europe by the Nazis, brilliantly exposed the hypocrisies and soul deadening conformity of mainstream American culture.

From Salon • Jan. 1, 2026

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.

From BBC • Nov. 19, 2025

But by 1936, seventeen-year-old Hans had grown tired of the conformity demanded by the Hitler Youth.

From "Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow" by Susan Campbell Bartoletti

Related Words

• obedience