Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The shape and structure of an object.
  • noun The body or outward appearance of a person or an animal; figure.
  • noun A model of the human figure or part of it used for displaying clothes.
  • noun A mold for the setting of concrete.
  • noun The way in which a thing exists, acts, or manifests itself.
  • noun Philosophy The essential or ideal nature of something, especially as distinguished from its matter or material being.
  • noun A kind, type, or variety.
  • noun Botany A subdivision of a variety usually differing in one trivial characteristic, such as flower color.
  • noun Method of arrangement or manner of coordinating elements in verbal or musical composition.
  • noun A particular type or example of such arrangement.
  • noun Procedure as determined or governed by regulation or custom.
  • noun Manners or conduct as governed by etiquette, decorum, or custom.
  • noun A fixed order of words or procedures, as for use in a ceremony.
  • noun A document with blanks for the insertion of details or information.
  • noun Performance considered with regard to acknowledged criteria.
  • noun A pattern of behavior or performance.
  • noun Fitness, as of an athlete or animal, with regard to health or training.
  • noun A racing form.
  • noun A grade in a British secondary school or in some American private schools.
  • noun A linguistic form.
  • noun The external aspect of words with regard to their inflections, pronunciation, or spelling.
  • noun Chiefly British A long seat; a bench.
  • noun The lair or resting place of a hare.
  • intransitive verb To give form to; shape.
  • intransitive verb To make or fashion by shaping.
  • intransitive verb To develop in the mind; conceive.
  • intransitive verb To arrange oneself in.
  • intransitive verb To organize or arrange.
  • intransitive verb To fashion, train, or develop by instruction, discipline, or precept.
  • intransitive verb To come to have; develop or acquire.
  • intransitive verb To enter into (a relationship).
  • intransitive verb To constitute or compose, especially out of separate elements.
  • intransitive verb To produce (a tense, for example) by inflection.
  • intransitive verb To make (a word) by derivation or composition.
  • intransitive verb To become formed or shaped.
  • intransitive verb To come into being by taking form; arise.
  • intransitive verb To assume a specified form, shape, or pattern.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In electricity, to change (the surface of the plates of a secondary or storage-cell) by repeated charge and discharge, so that they are in condition for use.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English forme, from Latin fōrma, possibly (via Etruscan) from Greek morphē.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English forme ("shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc."), from Old French forme, from Latin forma ("shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.")

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word form.

Examples

  • I still await some form of PERSONAL **not form** answer.

    Block this way 2008

  • These experiments merely indicate that _the parent form possesses more potential characters than it can give expression to in a single individual form_, some of them being necessarily latent or hidden, and that when these latent ones show themselves they must do so at the expense of others which become latent or hidden in their turn.

    Q. E. D., or New Light on the Doctrine of Creation George McCready Price

  • It is clear that the main point of the question does not lie in organic matter or in organic form, but in organic _motion_, for even the specific of the organic _form_ originates only first through _organic motion of life_.

    The Theories of Darwin and Their Relation to Philosophy, Religion, and Morality Rudolf Schmid

  • The olden transcendentalist dragged on in barren cells and dreary poverty in order not to divert his glorified vision of the formless by the beauty of the _ever present form_; the modern transcendentalist brings his higher laws into play, conquers his poverty and commands around himself the beauty and luxury and freedom of the world of form, and it speaks to him in matchless raiment, luxuriant flowers, gems, material comforts and soft ease.

    Freedom Talks No. II Julia Seton

  • Was the form of slavery which our professor pronounces innocent _the form_ witnessed by our Savior "in Judea?"

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • The relation between matter and form, or between _content and form_, as it is generally called, is one of the most disputed questions in

    Aesthetic as Science of Expression and General Linguistic Benedetto Croce 1909

  • What is real is the continual _change of_ form: _form is only a snapshot view of a transition_.

    Evolution créatrice. English Henri Bergson 1900

  • But they will never do it; for, in their eyes, spoliation is a principle of hatred and disorder, and the most particularly odious form which it can assume is _the legal form_.

    Sophisms of the Protectionists Fr��d��ric Bastiat 1825

  • In her trial, Patrick used a fish-oil-based essential fatty acid from Nordic Naturals that consisted of 225mg of Omega-3 (E.A and DHA), 33mg of Omega-6 (GLA) and 15 IU of Vitamin E. Nordic Naturals fish oils are of the highest quality and all Nordic Naturals fish oils are in their natural triglyceride form*, which is the optimum form for the body to absorb and use.

    NZ On Screen 2010

  • In her trial, Patrick used a fish-oil-based essential fatty acid from Nordic Naturals that consisted of 225mg of Omega-3 (E.A and DHA), 33mg of Omega-6 (GLA) and 15 IU of Vitamin E. Nordic Naturals fish oils are of the highest quality and all Nordic Naturals fish oils are in their natural triglyceride form*, which is the optimum form for the body to absorb and use.

    NZ On Screen 2010

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • XKCD.

    July 21, 2009

  • Corrected link: XKCD. (A stray tag had crept in.)

    July 21, 2009

  • Oops, sorry. Fixed now.

    July 21, 2009

  • outline, potential

    July 22, 2009

  • freedom

    February 12, 2013