formal
adj 1: being in accord with established forms and conventions and
requirements (as e.g. of formal dress); "pay one's
formal respects"; "formal dress"; "a formal ball";
"the requirement was only formal and often ignored";
"a formal education" [ant: {informal}]
2: characteristic of or befitting a person in authority;
"formal duties"; "an official banquet"
3: (of spoken and written language) adhering to traditional
standards of correctness and without casual, contracted,
and colloquial forms; "the paper was written in formal
English" [ant: {informal}]
4: (fine arts) represented in simplified or symbolic form [syn:
{conventional}, {schematic}]
5: logically deductive; "formal proof"
6: refined or imposing in manner or appearance; befitting a
royal court; "a courtly gentleman" [syn: {courtly}, {elegant},
{stately}]