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 • Nov. 28, 2025
In this case of a sculpture, the sculptor’s vision or idea was referred to as the formal cause.
From Textbooks • Jun. 15, 2022
A formal cause of death has not been confirmed, but Schepers said in an email that hospital records “indicate that COVID-19 is the presumed, but as of yet unconfirmed, cause of death.”
From Washington Post • Feb. 9, 2021
While a formal cause of death has not been confirmed, Schepers said in an email that hospital records “indicate that COVID-19 is the presumed, but as of yet unconfirmed, cause of death.”
From Seattle Times • Feb. 9, 2021
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 "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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.
