Definitions for formative

• Definition
• Anagrams (490)

formative form·a·tive

Spelling: [fawr-muh-tiv]

IPA: /ˈfɔr mə tɪv/

Formative is a 9 letter English word. It's valid Scrabble word worth 17 points. It's valid Words with friends word worth 19 points.

You can make 490 anagrams from letters in formative (aefimortv).

Definitions for formative

noun

1. Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.
2. Linguistics. (in generative grammar) any element, as a word, affix, or inflectional ending, functioning as a minimal syntactic unit that can be used in forming larger constructions.

adjective

1. giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding:
2. pertaining to formation or development:
3. Biology. capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation: concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.
4. Grammar. pertaining to a formative.

Origin of formative

From the Middle French word formatif, dating back to 1480-90. See formation, -ive

Examples for formative

The Scopes Trial was a formative moment for modern creationism.

Evolution, like development, was due to a Bildungskraft or formative force.

For a generation of moviegoers, there are few filmmakers more influential during one's formative years than Rob Reiner.

Perhaps the Chiltern she had married was as yet in a formative state.

All my formative years, I spent standing next to Jay [Z] or Justin [Timberlake] or all those kings.

The correlation is especially robust in the lower grades, when students are in their formative years.

You include a story about a poem, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock, really affecting you in your formative years.

He had undergone the labours of a titan for twelve eventful and formative years.

In its literal sense Bildung implies a shaping and formative action.

formative Reize in der thierischen Ontogenese, Leipzig, 1901.