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formative

[fawr-muh-tiv]

Example Sentences Origin

adjective

giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding: a formative process in manufacturing.

pertaining to formation or development: a child's most formative years.

Biology.

capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation: formative tissue.

concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.

Grammar. pertaining to a formative.

noun

Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.

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.

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Formative is always a great word to know.

So is segmentation. Does it mean:

the subdivision of an organism or of an organ into more or less equivalent parts; cell division

a taxonomic group of organisms classified together on the basis of homologous features traced to a common ancestor

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Origin:
1480–90; < Middle French formatif. See formation, -ive

Related forms

form·a·tive·ly, adverb

form·a·tive·ness, noun

non·form·a·tive, adjective

non·form·a·tive·ly, adverb

sub·form·a·tive, adjective

EXPAND

sub·form·a·tive·ly, adverb

sub·form·a·tive·ness, noun

un·form·a·tive, adjective

COLLAPSE

Can be confused: formative, formidable.

Synonyms
2. receptive, impressionable, susceptible.

Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source

Link To formative

Example Sentences

Digital tools offer too many conveniences and well-digested materials for students to use them in meaningful formative ways.

Constructed qualitative case studies for clients emphasizing summative and formative issues.

The bard's formative years uncovered in the first part of a three-volume autobiography.

EXPAND

Digital tools offer too many conveniences and well-digested materials for students to use them in meaningful formative ways.

Constructed qualitative case studies for clients emphasizing summative and formative issues.

The bard's formative years uncovered in the first part of a three-volume autobiography.

But high-tech orbiting telescopes are lifting the veil on our universe's formative years.

As far as the global warming is concerned, the theory moved past the formative stages a long time ago.

But its legacy lives on, in part because the effort was a formative experience for a team of brilliant young engineers.

The formative period for nearly all the big football elevens is about over.

These students come back to full-time study having spent their formative years outside the academic world.

Although the white paper is still in its formative stage, some signals are emerging from ministers.

There's evidence that a good storm of comets in a planet's formative stages could provide an ocean or two.

Fast-charging technology is still in a formative stage of development.

Those formative years left him firm of body, inquisitive of mind and resolute in spirit.

It's horrible for children for a long formative period of their lives.

It is giving millions of youngsters a chance to spend their formative years abroad.

The farm represents his formative years, and as his book details, a year of his young adult life.

The ideas surrounding free will is not typically on the agenda during these formative years.

Sloane's takes us into stirring and formative times.

But formative knowledge is formative knowledge, and in my head, those early years call the tune.

Your influence on us during our formative years will last a lifetime.

There is a formative stage of all economies in which a greater degree of state intervention is needed.

Seeing her come into her own in these positions was a formative experience for me.

My peaceful childhood, my turbulent adolescence, the uncertainties of my formative years.

After a formative encounter with the paranormal, one philosopher embraced the study of it.

Jets may hold also vital clues to figuring out how energy was transported in the formative stages of the universe, he added.

We share a lot of formative favorite records from the mid.

Evaluation studies, with a particular expertise in formative evaluation are another core competency of the organization.

Holkins claims that he owes his success to those formative encounters with jocks and their lacrosse sticks.

His energy, wisdow and generosity were an example for our community in the formative years of this school.

Conducted a formative evaluation incorporating qualitative methods.

I've met no clients who had not sustained abuse, neglect or other serious trauma in their formative years.

The scene is a research center, where experimental time-travel is in its formative stages.

Formative and summative evaluation in the faculty peer review of teaching.

Women were underrepresented largely because no one cultivated their interest during formative educational years.

Delon spent his formative years primarily in the care of foster parents.

COLLAPSE

Collins

World English Dictionary

formative (ˈfɔːmətɪv)

—*adj*
1.	of or relating to formation, development, or growth: formative years
2.	shaping; moulding: a formative experience
3.	(of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation
4.	functioning in the formation of derived, inflected, or compound words

—n
5.	an inflectional or derivational affix
6.	(in generative grammar) any of the minimum units of a sentence that have syntactic function

'formatively

—*adv*

'formativeness

—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
Cite This Source

Etymonline

Word Origin & History

formative

late 15c., from M.Fr. formatif, from forme (see form).

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Matching Quote

"The social forces that operate on a family during the daughter's formative years continue to shape her experience. Thus the families, schools, and jobs that involve poor women are likely to be very hierarchically arranged, demanding conformity, passivity, and obedience—all unsupportive of continued intellectual growth."

-Mary Field Belenky

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