Pronunciations (6)
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/fɔːm/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/fɔɹm/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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[fo̞ɹm]
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/fo(ː)ɹm/
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fɔːm
Pronunciation notes
- GB
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fɔɹm
Pronunciation notes
- US
Noun
To do with shape. The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (3)
Study gives strength to the mind; conversation, grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom.[…]Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.
As towns continue to grow, replanting vegetation has become a form of urban utopia and green roofs are spreading fast. Last year 1m square metres of plant-covered roofing was built in France, as much as in the US, and 10 times more than in Germany, the pioneer in this field.
To do with shape. A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
To do with shape. Regularity, beauty, or elegance.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
To do with shape. 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.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
To do with shape. Characteristics not involving atomic components.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
To do with shape. A long bench with no back.
Usage- Countable
- Dated
- physical
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
And there with syr Launcelot wrapped his mantel aboute his arme wel and surely and by thenne they had geten a grete fourme oute of the halle and there with all they rasshed at the dore […].
In the hall. One large table, with frame. 10s. ij cobbordes 8s. j fourme, j chaire, and j kenninge measure, 12d.
I can see the old schoolroom yet: the broken-down desks and the worn-out forms with knots in that got stuck into your backside[…].
More examples (1)
The prefect grabbed me by the shoulders and steered me down a passageway, and down another and finally through a door that led into a long, low dining-room crowded with loudly breakfasting boys sitting on long, shiny oak forms, as benches used to be called.
To do with shape. The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
To do with shape. The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
Usage- Countable
- physical
- Uncountable
To do with structure or procedure. An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
To do with structure or procedure. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Those whom form of laws Condemned to die.
[H]e sprang into the road, without previously going through the empty form of advising the driver of his intention, to pick [his hat] up.
To do with structure or procedure. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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a republican form of government
To do with structure or procedure. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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a matter of mere form
Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice.
To do with structure or procedure. A class or rank in society.
Usage- Archaic
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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ladies of a high form
To do with structure or procedure. Past history (in a given area); a habit of doing something.
Usage- UK usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
It's fair to say she has form on this: she has criticised David Cameron's proposal to create all-women shortlists for prospective MPs, tried to ban women wearing high heels at work as the resulting pain made them take time off work, and tried to reduce the point at which an abortion can take place from 24 to 21 weeks.
As for the notion that it’s not how Sunak would have won, that doesn’t mean a whole lot coming from a guy whose recent form includes losing to Liz Truss.
To do with structure or procedure. Level of performance.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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The team's form has been poor this year.
The orchestra was on top form this evening.
To do with structure or procedure. A class or year of school pupils.
Usage- UK usage
- Countable
- Uncountable
To do with structure or procedure. 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).
Usage- UK usage
- Countable
- Dated
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (2)
Nathaniel: Maister, there is nobody to teach in the sixth form. Maister: What a thing is this? N: He is sick in bed. M: How do you know? N: One of the scholars in his house told me so.
I am a very weak, insufficient scholar, sitting on the lowest form in Thy great school-house, which is the whole world, and trying to spell out the mere letters of Thy alphabet […]
One other day after afternoon school, Mr. Percival came behind me and put his hand on me. "Let me see, what's your name? Which form are you in?[…]"
From the sixth form will come the scholars and the administrators.
A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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To apply for the position, complete the application form.
A specimen document to be copied or imitated.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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participial forms; verb forms
The den or home of a hare.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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Being one day a hunting, I found a Hare sitting in her forme[…].
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.
More examples (1)
Hares left their snug ‘forms’ in the cold grass.
A window or dialogue box.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
- Examples
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More examples (1)
While it is quite amazing how much one can do with Visual Basic with the code attached to a single form, to take full advantage of VB you'll need to start using multiple forms and having the code on all the forms in your project interact.
Throughout this chapter we will work with a form in a new project.
An infraspecific rank.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
Usage- Countable
- Historical
- Uncountable
- Examples
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And the form is inked, the paper is applied, the bed is slid, and the platen is levered down and the proof is printed.
A quantic.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
A specific way of performing a movement.
Usage- Countable
- Uncountable
Verb
To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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When you kids form a straight line I'll hand out the lollies.
More examples (1)
Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.
To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Roll out the dough to form a thin sheet.
To take shape.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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When icicles start to form on the eaves you know the roads will be icy.
More examples (1)
As we age, the major arteries of our bodies frequently become thickened with plaque, a fatty material with an oatmeal-like consistency that builds up along the inner lining of blood vessels. The reason plaque forms isn’t entirely known, but it seems to be related to high levels of cholesterol inducing an inflammatory response, which can also attract and trap more cellular debris over time.
To put together or bring into being; assemble.
- Examples
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The socialists did not have enough MPs to form a government.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed The Beatles in Liverpool in 1960.
To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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By adding "-ness", you can form a noun from an adjective.
To constitute, to compose, to make up.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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Teenagers form the bulk of extreme traffic offenders.
the diplomatic politicians[…]who formed by far the majority
More examples (2)
But then I had the [massive] flintlock by me for protection. ¶[…]The linen-press and a chest on the top of it formed, however, a very good gun-carriage; and, thus mounted, aim could be taken out of the window at the old mare feeding in the meadow below by the brook, and a 'bead' could be drawn upon Molly, the dairymaid, kissing the fogger behind the hedge,[…].
Insects form the biggest family group in nature's kingdom, and also the oldest.
To mould or model by instruction or discipline.
- Examples
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Singing in a choir helps to form a child's sociality.
1731–1735, Alexander Pope, Moral Essays 'Tis education forms the common mind.
More examples (1)
Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
To provide (a hare) with a form.
- Examples
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The melancholy hare is formed in brakes and briers.
More examples (1)
This is the time that the horseman are flung out, not having the cry to lead them to the death. When quadruped animals of the venery or hunting kind are at rest, the stag is said to be harboured, the buck lodged, the fox kennelled, the badger earthed, the otter vented or watched, the hare formed, and the rabbit set. When you find and rouse up the stag and buck, they are said to be imprimed: […]
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.
Usage- Historical
- Transitive
Noun
the phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached
a category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality
- Broader terms
- Examples
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sculpture is a form of art
what kinds of desserts are there?
a perceptual structure
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the composition presents problems for students of musical form
a visual pattern must include not only objects but the spaces between them
any spatial attributes (especially as defined by outline)
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he could barely make out their shapes
alternative names for the body of a human being
- Broader terms
- Examples
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Leonardo studied the human body
he has a strong physique
More examples (1)
the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
the spatial arrangement of something as distinct from its substance
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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geometry is the mathematical science of shape
the visual appearance of something or someone
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the delicate cast of his features
a printed document with spaces in which to write
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he filled out his tax form
(biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups
- Broader terms
- Examples
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a new strain of microorganisms
an arrangement of the elements in a composition or discourse
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the essay was in the form of a dialogue
he first sketches the plot in outline form
a particular mode in which something is manifested
- Examples
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his resentment took the form of extreme hostility
(physical chemistry) a distinct state of matter in a system; matter that is identical in chemical composition and physical state and separated from other material by the phase boundary
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the reaction occurs in the liquid phase of the system
a body of students who are taught together
- Broader terms
- Examples
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early morning classes are always sleepy
an ability to perform well
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he was at the top of his form
the team was off form last night
a life-size dummy used to display clothes
- Broader terms
a mold for setting concrete
- Examples
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they built elaborate forms for pouring the foundation
Verb
create (as an entity)
- Examples
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social groups form everywhere
They formed a company
to compose or represent
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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This wall forms the background of the stage setting
The branches made a roof
More examples (1)
This makes a fine introduction
develop into a distinctive entity
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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our plans began to take shape
give shape or form to
- Synonyms
- Examples
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shape the dough
form the young child's character
make something, usually for a specific function
- Broader terms
- Examples
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She molded the rice balls carefully
Form cylinders from the dough
More examples (2)
shape a figure
Work the metal into a sword
establish or impress firmly in the mind
- Synonyms
- Examples
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We imprint our ideas onto our children
assume a form or shape
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the water formed little beads