Formal

Look up formal or informal in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Formal, formality, informal or informality imply the complying with, or not complying with, some set of requirements (forms, in Ancient Greek). They may refer to:

• Formal wear, attire for formal events
• Semi-formal attire, attire for semi-formal events
• Informal attire, more controlled attire than casual but less than formal
• Formal (university), official university dinner, ball or other event
• School formal, official school dinner, ball or other event

• Formal logic, or symbolic logic
  • Informal logic, the complement, whose definition and scope is contentious
• Formal fallacy, reasoning of invalid structure
  • Informal fallacy, the complement
• Informal mathematics, also called naïve mathematics
• Formal cause, Aristotle's intrinsic, determining cause
• 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

• Formal methods, mathematically based techniques for the specification, development and verification of software and hardware systems
• Formal specification, describes what a system should do, not how it should do it
• Formal verification, proves correctness of a system

• 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
• Colloquialism, the linguistic style used for informal communication
• T–V distinction, involving a distinction between formal and informal words for "you"
• Formal proof, a fully rigorous proof as is possible only in a formal system
• Dynamic and formal equivalence word-for-word translation, especially of the Bible

• Formal concentration, molar concentration of original chemical formula in solution
• Formal (pronounced "form-al")
  • A compound CH₂(OR)₂, named in analogy to acetals CHR¹(OR)₂ (historical definition) and ketals CR¹R²(OR)₂
  • Dimethoxymethane (CH₂(OCH₃)₂) in particular, the formal derived from methanol

• A formality, an established procedure or set of specific behaviors
  • Pro forma, for no purpose other than satisfying a formality
• Informal activities:
  • Informal education, education outside of a standard school setting
  • Informal sector, the part of an economy that is not taxed, nor monitored by any form of government
  • Informal settlement, or shanty town
  • Informal value transfer system, outside the conventional banking system
  • Informal social control, enforcing norms without resort to laws

• Informal vote, a spoiled, void, null vote cast in an election
• MV Formality, coaster (formerly Empire Favourite) owned by F T Everard & Sons, scrapped in 1962

• Form (disambiguation)
• Formalism (disambiguation)
• Formal theory (disambiguation)

This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Formal.
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