Other forms: formulas
A formula is a rule written in symbols instead of words. E = mc². Area = πr². You copy it off the board, put your own numbers in where the letters are, and the answer comes out the other end. On an exam paper the important ones are printed along the top of the sheet, so nobody has to carry them in their head.
Chemists use the word too: the formula of water is H₂O, which tells you what the stuff is made of rather than how to work anything out. Away from science, a formula is any dependable method for getting a result — a formula for success, a formula for disaster, a peace formula both sides will sign. Say a film was made to a formula and you mean it followed a recipe and took no risks. It takes for: the formula for something. It has two plurals, formulas in ordinary writing and formulae in scientific writing, and one meaning that catches learners out — in a supermarket, formula is the powdered milk you feed a baby.
1nounformulaA rule written in symbols and numbers for working something out.
“The formula for the area of a circle is πr².”
2nounchemistryThe symbols showing which elements a substance is made of.
“Water has the formula H₂O.”
3nounrecipeA fixed method that produces the same result every time.
“There is no formula for a happy marriage.”
4nounpowderedPowdered milk made for feeding a baby.
“He warmed a bottle of formula at two in the morning.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: equation
Latin forma was a form — a shape, a pattern, a mould. A formula was the little one: the small pattern you pour things into and get the same shape out every time. Rule, method, principle: the Latin word already carried all of that, and English took it in with the lot.
Latin
formula — a small pattern or mold, form, rule, principle, method, formula
English, today
formula
Built from
Latin formula (“a small pattern or mold, form, rule, principle, method, formula”), diminutive of forma (“a form”). See form.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA