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   For·mal·ism

   /ˈfôrməˌlizəm/

   

   noun

   • 1. excessive adherence to prescribed forms: "academic dryness and formalism"
   • ▪ the use of forms of worship without regard to inner significance.
   • ▪ the basing of ethics on the form of the moral law without regard to intention or consequences.
   • ▪ concern or excessive concern with form and technique rather than content in artistic creation.
   • ▪ (in the theater) a symbolic and stylized manner of production.
   • ▪ the treatment of mathematics as a manipulation of meaningless symbols.
   • 2. a description of something in formal mathematical or logical terms: "there is a formalism which expresses the idea of superposition"

   Scrabble Points: 16

   • F

     4

   • O

     1

   • R

     1

   • M

     3

   • A

     1

   • L

     1

   • I

     1

   • S

     1

   • M

     3

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