formative

American  

[fawr-muh-tiv] / ˈfɔr mə tɪv /

adjective

1. giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding.

   a formative process in manufacturing.

2. relating to formation or development.

   a child's most formative years.

   Synonyms:

   impressionable, receptive, susceptible

3. Biology.

   1. capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation.

      formative tissue.

   2. concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.

4. Education. continuous and diagnostic, and covering specifically the current material with which the student is actively engaged; ongoing: formative evaluation;

   formative assessment;

   formative evaluation;

   formative feedback.

5. Grammar. relating to a formative, an affix that indicates the part of speech of a derived word.

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noun

formatives plural

1. Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.

2. 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.

formative British  

/ ˈfɔːmətɪv /

adjective

1. of or relating to formation, development, or growth

   formative years

2. shaping; moulding

   a formative experience

3. (of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation

4. functioning in the formation of derived, inflected, or compound words

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noun

1. an inflectional or derivational affix

2. (in generative grammar) any of the minimum units of a sentence that have syntactic function

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• formativeness
  noun
• subformativeness
  noun
• nonformative
  adjective
• subformative
  adjective
• unformative
  adjective
• formatively
  adverb
• nonformatively
  adverb
• subformatively
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• formatives
  plural

Etymology

Origin of formative

First recorded in 1480–90; from Old French formatif (masculine), formative (feminine); see formation, -ive

Explanation

Formative is a word that describes something that made you who you are. You might call your adolescence your formative years because that time period had such a strong influence on the rest of your life. The word form means “to shape.” Something that is formative is capable of shaping or molding something or someone. A formative experience is one that strongly influenced you, like the first time you went to the beach and decided, from that day, that you wanted to become a world-class surfer. Formative can also describe an organism that is able to form new cells. In linguistics, the noun formative is a small language unit that can help shape or form a word.

Example Sentences

Formative albums like “This Is A Long Drive...” and 1997’s “The Lonesome Crowded West” explored themes of endless travel and isolation amid American rural landscapes, as well as corporate greed and consumerism.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 9, 2026

Formative cooking memories for us involve helping our families prepare large, communal meals during holidays.

From Salon • Aug. 12, 2024

Around 900 BCE, the Andes region experienced a transformation when a single society, often called the Chavín culture, expanded across the entire area, opening what archaeologists call the Early Horizon, or Formative, period.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

They needed Formative period sites, dating from about 2000 B.C.E. to 200 C.E., roughly matching the dates associated with the Book of Mormon.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 18, 2018

How long the Formative Age will last is not known, and there will probably be a number of epochs in it.

From Directives from the Guardian by Shoghi Effendi

Related Words

• developmental