Formal Totally Explained

Everything about Formal totally explained

The term formal has a number of uses, including:

General

relating to formality
opposite of informal

Social

Formal attire worn on such occasions
Formals are particular meals at some British universities
In Australian or British English, a "formal" is the equivalent of the American prom dance.
In American English, a "formal" is organized by a college or university organization, typically but not always a fraternity or sorority.

Informal occasion (included as Informal redirect here); see Dress code (Western) for the distinctions between Formal, Semi-formal, and Informal

Informal attire (not to be confused with Casual -- see Dress code (Western))

Philosophical

relating to form, for example appearance rather than essence.

relating to Formalism, for example emphasis on form over content or meaning.

formal logic logical argument based only on the form and not on the meaning.

Formal cause, Aristotle's intrinsic, determining cause.

Mathematics

formal power series, a generalization of power series without requiring convergence, used in combinatorics;

formal calculation, a calculation which is systematic, but without a rigorous justification;

formal set theory as opposed to naive set theory;

formal derivative, an operation on elements of a polynomial ring which mimics the form of the derivative from calculus.

Logic and Language

formal system, an abstract means of generating inferences in a formal language;

formal language, comprising the symbolic "words" or "sentences" of a formal system;
- formal grammar, a grammar describing a formal language;
formal proof, a fully rigorous proof as is possible only in a formal system.

Computer science

formal methods in computer science, including:

formal specification describes what a system should do, not how it should do it
formal verification proves correctness of a system

See also the Language section of Mathematics, above

Linguistic

Formal equivalence word-for-word translation (especially of the Bible) See also the Language section of Mathematics, above

Chemical

A unit of concentration

short or prefix form for formalin

short or prefix form for formaldehyde

synonym for dimethoxymethaneFurther Information

Get more info on 'Formal'.

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