Other forms: formalities
Formality is careful attention to correct manners and correct form: the handshake, the title, the right words in the right order. A courtroom runs on it, and so does a letter that opens "Dear Sir or Madam".
The other formality is a thing that has to be done even though the outcome is already settled: "the interview is just a formality", "a few formalities at the border and we were through". In that use it is either plural or preceded by "just a". As the quality itself it is uncountable — the formality of the occasion, the formality of his English — and the opposite is informality. The adjective is formal and the verb is formalize, which means to make an arrangement official on paper.
1nounformalityCareful, correct behaviour and language suited to a serious occasion.~50%
“The formality of the ceremony took her by surprise.”
2nounactAn official act or procedure that has to be gone through, though the result is already decided.~43%
“The vote was a formality; everyone knew the result in advance.”
3nounpaperworkOfficial procedures and paperwork.~7%
“We finished the customs formalities in ten minutes.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 14 sentences found in the wild and placed 14 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
formality is a quality of behaviour, or a required procedure.
Formality came in from Middle French formalité, and it is built the plain way: formal plus -ity, the ending that turns a description into the quality itself, as real turns into reality. The word carries its own subject inside it, since form is exactly what formality fusses over.
Middle French
formalité
English, today
formality
From Middle French formalité. equivalent to formal + ity.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA