formal

1. 1.

   a lavish dance requiring formal attire

   Synonymsball

   Broaderdance

   Narrowercotillionmasked ballpromenade
2. 2.

   a gown for evening wear

   Synonymsdinner dressdinner gownevening gown

   Broadergownformalwear

Other forms of formal

plural

formals·

comparative

formaller·

superlative

formallest·

Forms marked · are formed by the regular rule rather than recorded in the source data. English keeps a few hundred irregulars and the rest follow the pattern, so the rule is right far more often than not — but it is a rule, and the mark says so.

Questions about formal

What does formal mean?

formal means "being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress)". That is the primary sense; the word has 8 in total, listed in full on this page.

How many syllables are in formal?

formal has 2 syllables: for-mal. The stress falls on "for". In IPA it is /ˈfɔɹməl/.

What is another word for formal?

Close synonyms include conventional, schematic, courtly, stately, ball. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

What is the opposite of formal?

The recorded antonyms are informal, informal.

Is formal a common word?

formal is banded "Common" — everyday vocabulary in speech and writing. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.

What rhymes with formal?

1 word rhymes with formal. Rhymes are matched on the phonemes from the last stressed vowel onward, which is the definition a reader has in their head.