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Formal

The term '''formal''' has a number of uses, including:

General

- relating to formality
- opposite of '''informal'''

Social

- Formal occasion
    - Formal attire worn on such occasions
    - Formal (university)|Formals are particular meals at some British universities
    - In Australian or British English, a '''School formal|formal''' is the equivalent of the American prom dance.
    - In American English, a '''"formal"''' is organized by a college or university organization, typically but not always a fraternities and sororities|fraternity or sorority.
- Informal occasion (included as Informal redirect here); see Dress code (Western) for the distinctions between Formal, Semi-formal, and Informal
    - Informal attire (not to be confused with Casual -- see Dress code (Western))

Philosophical

- relating to form, i.e. appearance rather than essence.
- relating to Formalism, i.e. emphasis on form over content or meaning.
- formal logic#Informal, formal, and symbolic logic|formal logic logical argument based only on the form and not on the meaning.
- Formal cause, Aristotle's intrinsic, determining cause.

Mathematics

- 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.

Logic and Language

- 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;
    - formal proof, a fully rigorous proof as is possible only in a formal system.

Computer science

- formal methods in computer science, including:
- formal specification describes what a system should do, not how it should do it
- formal verification proves correctness of a system See also the Language section of Mathematics, above

Linguistic

- Formal equivalence word-for-word translation (especially of the Bible) See also the Language section of Mathematics, above

Chemical

- A Concentration#Formal|unit of concentration
- short or prefix form for formalin
- short or prefix form for formaldehyde
- synonym for dimethoxymethane

Political Science

- Formal theory refers to mathematical scientific modeling|modeling, because otherwise "theory" refers more broadly to political philosophy

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