formalism
Americannoun
-
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.
noun
-
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
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of formalism
Vocabulary lists containing formalism
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.
"In the future, we can use our formalism to consider more subtle problems in quantum thermodynamics," says Daniel.
From Science Daily • Dec. 23, 2025
And so when I was starting to write screenplays at first that was very daunting to me, the rigidity of that formalism, having to write slug lines and all of that.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 19, 2024
“Is there a universal basis for selection? Is there a more quantitative formalism underlying this conjectured conceptual equivalence—a formalism rooted in the transfer of information?,” they ask of the world’s disparate phenomena.
From Salon • Oct. 22, 2023
But disillusionment quickly set in: Mochizuki had spent 20 years single-handedly developing no fewer than 500 pages of a completely new formalism that other experts needed to decipher.
From Scientific American • Jul. 28, 2023
It seemed as if some penetrating lucidity permitted her to see the reality of things beyond any formalism.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
