formulism

American  

[fawr-myuh-liz-uhm] / ˈfɔr myəˌlɪz əm /

noun

1. adherence to or reliance on formulas.

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formulism British  

/ ˈfɔːmjʊˌlɪzəm /

noun

1. adherence to or belief in formulas

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Other Word Forms

• formulist noun
• formulistic adjective
• unformulistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of formulism

First recorded in 1830–40; formul(a) + -ism

Example Sentences

Language defies such two-plus-two-equals-four formulism.

From Washington Post

To this and the other noisy, very great-looking Simulacrum with the whole world huzzahing at its heels, he can say, composedly stepping aside: Thou art not true; thou art not extant, only semblant; go thy way!—Yes, hollow Formulism, gross Benthamism, and other unheroic atheistic Insincerity is visibly and even rapidly declining.

From Project Gutenberg

Formulism, Pagan Popeism, and other Falsehood and corrupt Semblance had ruled long enough: and here once more was a man found who durst tell all men that God’s world stood not on semblances but on realities; that Life was a truth, and not a lie!

From Project Gutenberg

But those who cannot understand sacramentarianism may dismiss it far too easily, for though there be here danger of a mechanical formulism, the sacraments themselves may become part of a spiritual discipline through which the lives of men and women are so profoundly changed as in the most clear case of conversion, manifesting often a spiritual beauty not to be found in any other conception of Christian discipleship.

From Project Gutenberg

Distraction surely, incipience of the "final deliration" enters upon the poor old English Formulism that has called itself for some two centuries a Church.

From Project Gutenberg