formative
[fawr-muh-tiv]
- giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding: a formative process in manufacturing.
- pertaining to formation or development: a child's most formative years.
- Biology.
- capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation: formative tissue.
- concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.
- Grammar. pertaining to a formative.
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- Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.
- Linguistics. (in generative grammar) any element, as a word, affix, or inflectional ending, functioning as a minimal syntactic unit that can be used in forming larger constructions.
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Origin of formative
Synonyms
See more synonyms for formative on Thesaurus.com2. receptive, impressionable, susceptible.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for formative
Contemporary Examples
You include a story about a poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, really affecting you in your formative years.
All my formative years, I spent standing next to Jay [Z] or Justin [Timberlake] or all those kings.
For a generation of moviegoers, there are few filmmakers more influential during one's formative years than Rob Reiner.
Rob Reiner on the State of Romcoms, ‘The Princess Bride’s’ Alternate Ending, and the Red ViperMarlow Stern
July 27, 2014
The Scopes Trial was a formative moment for modern creationism.
The correlation is especially robust in the lower grades, when students are in their formative years.
Historical Examples
In its literal sense Bildung implies a shaping and formative action.
The New SocietyWalther Rathenau
Evolution, like development, was due to a Bildungskraft or formative force.
Form and FunctionE. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell
Formative Reize in der thierischen Ontogenese, Leipzig, 1901.
Form and FunctionE. S. (Edward Stuart) Russell
He had undergone the labours of a titan for twelve eventful and formative years.
A History of the United StatesCecil Chesterton
Perhaps the Chiltern she had married was as yet in a formative state.
A Modern Chronicle, CompleteWinston Churchill
formative
- of or relating to formation, development, or growthformative years
- shaping; mouldinga formative experience
- (of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation
- functioning in the formation of derived, inflected, or compound words
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- an inflectional or derivational affix
- (in generative grammar) any of the minimum units of a sentence that have syntactic function
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for formative
adj.
late 15c., from Middle French formatif, from Latin format-, past participle stem of formare (see form (n.)).
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper