Formality

Webster's Dictionary of the English Language

·noun Form without substance.

II. Formality ·noun That which is formal; the formal part.

III. Formality ·noun The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence.

IV. Formality ·noun Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality.

V. Formality ·noun The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, ·etc.

VI. Formality ·noun The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal.

VII. Formality ·noun An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode.

VIII. Formality ·noun The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities.