form

English Online Dictionary. What means form‎? What does form mean?

English

Alternative forms

• forme (printing, otherwise obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement, etc.”), borrowed from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“shape, figure, image, outline, plan, mold, frame, case, etc., manner, sort, kind, etc.”).

In sense "division grouping school students" (now dated), derived from public school nomenclature later adopted by state schools. It is sometimes said to be from the sense of "bench", where students of certain ages would sit together, though this is disputed, or alternatively from the sense of "established method of expression or practice".

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: fôrm, IPA^(key): /fɔːm/
• (General American) enPR: fôrm, IPA^(key): /fɔɹm/, [fo̞ɹm]
• (without the horse–hoarse merger, rhotic) IPA^(key): /fo(ː)ɹm/
• Hyphenation: form
• Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)m

Noun

form (countable and uncountable, plural forms)

1. (heading, physical) To do with shape.
   1. The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
   2. A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.
   3. Regularity, beauty, or elegance.
   4. (philosophy) The inherent nature of an object; that which the mind itself contributes as the condition of knowing; that in which the essence of a thing consists.
   5. Characteristics not involving atomic components. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
   6. (dated) A long bench with no back.
   7. (fine arts) The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
   8. (crystallography) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
2. (social) To do with structure or procedure.
   1. An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.
   2. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.
   3. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system.

   4. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.
   5. (archaic) A class or rank in society.
   6. (UK) Past history (in a given area); a habit of doing something.
   7. Level of performance.

      The team's form has been poor this year.

      The orchestra was on top form this evening.

   8. (UK, education) A class or year of school pupils.
   9. (UK, education, dated) A numbered division grouping school students (usually every two years) in education between Years 1 and 13 (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the form, as in sixth form). [from 1550s]
3. A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.

4. A specimen document to be copied or imitated.
5. (grammar) A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.

6. The den or home of a hare.
   • , I.iii.1.2:

     The Egyptians therefore in their hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, as being a most timorous and solitary creature.
7. (computing, programming) A window or dialogue box.
8. (taxonomy) An infraspecific rank.
9. (printing, dated) The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
10. (geometry) A quantic.
11. (sports, fitness) A specific way of performing a movement.

Usage notes

• In accents without the horse-hoarse merger, a distinction in pronunciation was formerly made between senses 1.6 "long bench", 2.8 "class of pupils", and 6 "den", pronounced /fo(ə)ɹm/, /foəm/ (< Middle English /fuːrm/) and all other senses, pronounced /fɔː(ɹ)m/ (< Middle English /fɔrm/).

Synonyms

• (visible structure of a thing or person): shape; see also Thesaurus:shape
  • (visible structure of a person): figure; see also Thesaurus:physique
• (thing that gives shape to other things): cast, cookie cutter, mold, pattern
• (mode of construction): configuration, makeup; see also Thesaurus:composition
• (blank document): formular
• (pre-collegiate level): grade
• (biology): f.

Derived terms

Related terms

Descendants

• → Korean: 폼 (pom)
• → Norwegian Bokmål: form

Translations

Verb

form (third-person singular simple present forms, present participle forming, simple past and past participle formed)

1. (transitive) To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).
2. (transitive) To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.

3. (intransitive) To take shape.
4. To put together or bring into being; assemble.

5. (transitive, linguistics) To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.

6. (transitive) To constitute, to compose, to make up.
   • 1948 May, Stanley Pashko, “The Biggest Family”, in Boys' Life, Volume 38, Number 5, Boy Scouts of America, ISSN 0006-8608, p.10:

     Insects form the biggest family group in nature's kingdom, and also the oldest.

7. To mould or model by instruction or discipline.
   • 1731–1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays

     'Tis education forms the common mind.
8. To provide (a hare) with a form.
9. (electrical, historical, transitive) To treat (plates) to prepare them for introduction into a storage battery, causing one plate to be composed more or less of spongy lead, and the other of lead peroxide. This was formerly done by repeated slow alternations of the charging current, but later the plates or grids were coated or filled, one with a paste of red lead and the other with litharge, introduced into the cell, and formed by a direct charging current.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (give shape): beshape, transmogrify; see also Thesaurus:form
• (take shape): take form, take shape; see also Thesaurus:come into being
• (constitute): compose, make up; see also Thesaurus:compose

Derived terms

Related terms

• format
• formation

Translations

References

Further reading

• “form”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “form”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• MoRF, from

Chinese

Etymology

From English form.

Pronunciation

Noun

form

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) form (document to be filled) (Classifier: 份 c; 張／张 c)
2. (Hong Kong Cantonese) a class or year of students (Classifier: 個／个 c)

Usage notes

When specifying the year, contrary to UK usage, a cardinal number follows instead, such as form 6.

Verb

form

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to form; to take shape
2. (Hong Kong Cantonese, of people) to form (a group); to assemble

References

• English Loanwords in Hong Kong Cantonese

Danish

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fōrma (“shape, form”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔrm/, [fɒːˀm]

Noun

form c (singular definite formen, plural indefinite former)

1. form
2. shape

Declension

Noun

form c (singular definite formen, plural indefinite forme)

1. mould
2. tin (a metal pan used for baking, roasting, etc.)

Declension

Further reading

• “form” in Den Danske Ordbog
• form on the Danish Wikipedia.Wikipedia ^da

German

Verb

form

1. singular imperative of formen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of formen

Icelandic

Noun

form n (genitive singular forms, nominative plural form)

1. mould
2. form, shape

Declension

Further reading

• “form” in the Dictionary of Modern Icelandic (in Icelandic) and ISLEX (in the Nordic languages)

Indonesian

Noun

form (plural form-form)

1. form, shape
2. form, document

Middle English

Etymology 1

Noun

form

1. Alternative form of forme (“form”)

Etymology 2

Adjective

form

1. Alternative form of forme (“first”)

Norwegian Bokmål

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔrm/
• Rhymes: -ɔrm
• Hyphenation: form

Etymology 1

From Old Norse form, from Latin fōrma (“form; figure, shape”), perhaps from Etruscan *morma, from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape, form”), possibly of Pre-Greek origin.

Noun

form f or m (definite singular forma or formen, indefinite plural former, definite plural formene)

1. a form, shape (the outer configuration of a thing; figure, outline)

   ta form ― take shape; develop

   ta form av ― take shape of; show up as (something)

   finne sin form ― find the right, best way to be or happen

   1. (in the plural) curves (the shape of a human, especially a woman's body)
   2. a shape, form (the way in which details, especially outer lines, are prepared, arranged, assembled into a harmonious whole)
   3. form (way of expressing oneself; way of acting)

      Synonym: innhold

   4. a form, design (the way in which something acts, is organized or manifests itself)

      i form av ― in the form of; in the shape of

   5. (physics, sciences) a state (the physical property of matter as solid, liquid, gas or plasma)

      Synonym: aggregattilstand

   6. (biology) a level below a species in the classification of organisms, where there is a less systematic variation between individuals of the same species
2. a type, kind, form (a category; a group of entities that have common characteristics such that they may be grouped together)
3. (philosophy) a form (an eternal type of thing or idea, especially in Plato's philosophy)
4. (philosophy, natural science) the formal cause (the design, pattern, or pure concept of a thing, which gives form or structure to its matter, in Aristotelianism)
5. (philosophy) form (summary of the manifold, the material of experience, into unity in consciousness - especially in Kant's philosophy)
6. a norm (a rule that is imposed by regulations and/or socially enforced by members of a community)
   1. (in the plural) etiquette (the customary behavior of members of a profession, business, law, or sports team towards each other)

   Synonym: etikette

7. (linguistics, grammar) a form (a grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech)
8. a form, mold (a hollow form or matrix for shaping a fluid or plastic substance)
   1. (typography) a printing form (an object, usually in the shape of a block or a plate, used in printing to apply ink on the printed surface)

      Synonym: trykkform

   2. (technology) an extruder (a machine that extrudes material through shaped dies)

      Synonym: ekstruder

Derived terms

Etymology 2

From English form, from Middle English forme (“shape, figure, manner, bench, frame, seat, condition, agreement”), from Old French forme, from Latin fōrma (“form; figure, shape”), perhaps from Etruscan *morma, from Ancient Greek μορφή (morphḗ, “shape, form”), possibly of Pre-Greek origin.

Noun

form f or m (definite singular forma or formen, indefinite plural former, definite plural formene)

1. (physical) shape, form (a human or animal's physical condition, especially in terms of endurance and athletic performance)

   Synonyms: kondisjon, frisk, sunn

   i form ― in shape; in form

Related terms

• forme (“to form”)

Etymology 3

Verb

form

1. imperative of forme

References

• “form” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “form” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).
• “form (algebra)”, “form (filosofi)”, “form (idrett)”, “form (jus)”, “form (kunst)”, “form (språkvitenskap)”, “form (teknikk)”, “form (musikk)”, “form (matematisk analyse)” in Store norske leksikon

Anagrams

• from, morf

Norwegian Nynorsk

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin fōrma.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fɔrm/

Noun

form f (definite singular forma, indefinite plural former, definite plural formene)

1. form
2. shape
3. a mould (e.g., for cast products)

Derived terms

Related terms

• -forma
• forme

References

• “form” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

Old English

Noun

form f

1. Alternative form of feorm

Swedish

Etymology

From Old Swedish forma, borrowed from Latin fōrma.

Pronunciation

Noun

form c

1. a form, a shape
2. a form, a mold, a dish, a tray, a tin, a piece of ovenware

Declension

Related terms

shape

mold

Anagrams

• fr.o.m., from

Turkish

Etymology

From French forme.

Noun

form (definite accusative formu, plural formlar)

1. form

Declension