formal cause
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of formal cause
Middle English word dating back to 1350–1400
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The formal cause of Kory's death is still unknown.
From BBC
A post-mortem examination was carried out on Thursday but no formal cause of death was established, with further tests due to be carried out.
From BBC
A pathologist had given the formal cause as unascertained due to the state of decomposition of the body.
From BBC
As far as Aristotle was concerned, as we saw in Chapter 3, causal explanations had four components: the formal cause, the final cause, the material cause and the efficient cause.
From Literature
Thus if I construct a table, the formal cause is the design I have in mind; the final cause is my desire to have somewhere to eat my meals; the material cause is various pieces of wood; and the efficient causes are a saw and a hammer.
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
