format

American  

[fawr-mat] / ˈfɔr mæt /

noun

formats plural

1. the shape and size of a book as determined by the number of times the original sheet has been folded to form the leaves.

2. the general physical appearance of a book, magazine, or newspaper, such as the typeface, binding, quality of paper, margins, etc.

3. the organization, plan, style, or type of something.

   The format of the show allowed for topical and controversial gags.

4. Computers. the arrangement of data for computer input or output, such as the number and size of fields in a record or the spacing and punctuation of information in a report.

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verb (used with object)

formats, present (3rd person singular) formatted, past participle, past formatting present participle

1. to plan or provide a format for.

   to format the annual telethon.

2. Computers.

   1. to set the format of (input or output).

      Some word-processing programs format output in a variety of ways.

   2. to prepare (a disk) for writing and reading.

verb (used without object)

formats, present (3rd person singular) formatted, past participle, past formatting present participle

1. to devise a format.

format British  

/ ˈfɔːmæt /

noun

1. the general appearance of a publication, including type style, paper, binding, etc

2. an approximate indication of the size of a publication as determined by the number of times the original sheet of paper is folded to make a leaf See also duodecimo quarto

3. style, plan, or arrangement, as of a television programme

4. computing

   1. the defined arrangement of data encoded in a file or for example on magnetic disk or CD-ROM, essential for the correct recording and recovery of data on different devices

   2. the arrangement of text on printed output or a display screen, or a coded description of such an arrangement

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verb

1. to arrange (a book, page, etc) into a specified format

format Scientific  

/ fôr′măt′ /

1. The arrangement of data for storage or display.

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1. To divide a disk into marked sectors so that it may store data.

2. To determine the arrangement of data for storage or display.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• formatter
  noun
• reformat
  verb
• preformat
  verb (used with object)

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• formats
  plural

Participles

• formatting
  present
• formatted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• format
  simple
• formats
  simple
• have formatted
  perfect
• has formatted
  perfect
• am formatting
  progressive
• are formatting
  progressive
• is formatting
  progressive
• have been formatting
  perfect progressive
• has been formatting
  perfect progressive

Past

• formatted
  simple
• had formatted
  perfect
• was formatting
  progressive
• were formatting
  progressive
• had been formatting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will format
  simple
• will have formatted
  perfect
• will be formatting
  progressive
• will have been formatting
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of format

First recorded in 1830–40; from French, from Latin (liber) fōrmātus “(book) shaped (in a specified way)”; see formation ( def. )

Explanation

In saving a new electronic document, you must choose a format, for instance PDF, Word doc, or XML, which dictates how the information is to be organized, displayed, and manipulated. To format information is to arrange it according to preexisting parameters. Electronic files require a format or, more commonly, a "file type," so computers will know how to open, read, and change them. Entertainment media are delivered in such varied formats as VHS, CD, DVD, MP3, and MOV. In the world of AM/FM radio, format is the type of music a station plays, such as top-40, urban, dance, or country.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

format formats formatted formatting

Nolan shot the entire three-hour movie on 70mm film, a large, high-resolution format designed for giant Imax screens.

From BBC ● Jul. 27, 2026

The special 70mm celluloid is touted as having ultra-high resolution and capturing an unusually wide frame, qualities Nolan says are best experienced by seeing a projection of physical film, not the contemporary standard digital format.

From Barron's ● Jul. 26, 2026

Last year, Evans told The Times that the interview format, with its squirm-inducing sauces, was a tactic to turn what might otherwise be a typical press tour interview into something raw and real.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 24, 2026

Take “Avatar,” which seduced audiences with its immersive 3D format so intensely that some viewers reported experiencing depression returning to the real world.

From Salon ● Jul. 22, 2026

Like most books nowadays, it was only available in electronic format.

From "Ready Player One: A Novel" by Ernest Cline

Its presence helped shape a new era of moviegoing formats.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026

As space becomes scarce, the company is experimenting with new store formats.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 20, 2026

He rose to lead the division that made printing technology for large formats, such as signs or billboards.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

Juggling the same story in two different formats turned out to benefit each end product.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 17, 2026

Because these tools are delivered over the Internet and written in standard Web formats, they are accessible to anyone who has an Internet connection and are easily interoperable with any business.

From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman

"AI thrives on recognising patterns. And legal citations and arguments are always formatted in the same way, so it's easy for an AI to follow a template and generate fake ones," said Charlotin.

From Barron's ● Jun. 15, 2026

After leaving ESPN, Bayless joined Fox Sports, where he co-hosted similarly formatted show “Undisputed” — for much of the time with co-host Shannon Sharpe — from 2016- to 2024.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2026

However, Wells participated in a CBP webinar last week, so she knew how to create a properly formatted file herself, and quickly made her submission on Monday morning.

From MarketWatch ● Apr. 20, 2026

Hip hop initially reached mass audiences through a subset of black radio stations, often those formatted as “urban contemporary.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 2, 2026

Lon Teter arrived in the final month to serve as, in effect, production foreman—getting an immense and complicated body of work checked, formatted, and into the paper on time.

From "Class Matters" by The New York Times

While both phones and laptops now have high-quality cameras, the formatting is a dead giveaway that you’re not on a laptop, says Melissa Marcus, a career coach who worked as a recruiter for 20 years.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 21, 2026

Voice writers repeat every word spoken in court along with a sequence of formatting commands to voice recognition software.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026

I pleaded with the AI to fix formatting that would take just a few of my own keystrokes.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 19, 2026

Spelling mistakes and formatting errors throughout the proclamations have made identifying exempted plants a guessing game.

From Salon ● May 10, 2026

She wasn’t using a word-processing program of any kind—in fact, she was bypassing much of the operating system—and whatever formatting was imposing itself on the words, it wasn’t hers.

From "The Subtle Knife" by Philip Pullman

Related Words

• arrangement
• composition
• configuration
• form
• layout
• organization
• pattern
• plan
• scheme
• setup
• shape
• size
• style