Other forms: formations
A formation is the making of something, or an ordered arrangement. Rock formation, flying in formation, the formation of a government.
The arrangement sense covers birds, aircraft and football teams. Birds fly in a V because the ones behind ride the upwash from the wingtips ahead, which saves real energy. In geology a formation is a named body of rock. Note form, from the Latin for a shape.
1nounformationAn ordered arrangement.
“The soldiers marched past the palace in tight formation.”
2nounmakingThe making of something.
“The formation of ice on the roads made driving dangerous.”
formation is an arrangement, or a making.
Latin formatio comes from formare, to shape, from forma, a shape. Form, reform and uniform come from the same shape.
Latin
fōrmātiō
Old French
formacion
Middle English
formacioun
English, today
formation
Built from
From Middle English formacioun, formation, borrowed from Old French formacion, from Latin fōrmātiō, from fōrmō (“form”); see form as verb. Morphologically form + ation.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA