Definition of Formative

Formative

Giving form; having the power of giving form; plastic; as, the formative arts.

Serving to form; derivative; not radical; as, a termination merely formative.

Capable of growth and development; germinal; as, living or formative matter.

That which serves merely to give form, and is no part of the radical, as the prefix or the termination of a word.

A word formed in accordance with some rule or usage, as from a root.

Related Definitions:

Accordance, And, As, Capable, Derivative, Development, Form, Formative, Formed, From, Germinal, Give, Giving, Growth, Having, In, Is, Living, Matter, Merely, No, Not, Of, Or, Part, Power, Prefix, Plastic, Radical, Root, Rule, Serving, Some, Termination, That, The, To, Usage, Which, With, Word

Formative Quotations

I was involved in music, acting, and some running, but my firm wish was to become a doctor. That was the formative age when I had decided on the pattern of my career.
Roger Bannister

It's not a deliberate thing. It's not like I was rejecting the UK, which is what the papers said. It's just that when you spend a lot of time in your formative years around an accent, you're going to pick it up. I had been living in LA for a bit and that's what happened.
Joss Stone

The Mirror Stage as formative in the function of the I as revealed in psychoanalytic experience.
Jacques Lacan

The combination of Federalism and Republicanism which formed the substance of the system, did not constitute a progressive and formative political principle, but it pointed in the direction of a constructive formula.
Herbert Croly

A more important reason is that the bands will intuitively trust someone they think is a peer, and who speaks fondly of the same formative rock and roll experiences.
Steve Albini

I would have been about seven years old when the formative years of my competitive football education began. I was playing in the local leagues around Manchester, playing against lads from tough areas who had been taught they had to fight for everything.
Gary Neville

I think most people read and re-read the things that they have liked. That's certainly true in my case. I re-read Pound a great deal, I re-read Williams, I re-read Thomas, I re-read the people whom I cam to love when I was at what you might call a formative stage.
James Laughlin

A part of sexuality may go to research, and a much larger part must lead to aesthetic creation. The art of the future will, because of the very opportunities and materials it will have at its command, need an infinitely stronger formative impulse than it does now.
John Desmond Bernal

A moment's reflection shows that Liberalism is entirely negative. It is not a formative force, but always and only a disintegrating force.
Francis Parker Yockey

My mother was a politician in my formative years.
Antonia Fraser

My dad was very fun and very adventurous, and from a formative age I learned to value men who would do things on a whim.
Rachel Hunter

My doctor felt that the main contributing factor was so many years of malnutrition, especially during my formative years, even before I got into modeling.
Carre Otis

Even now, after whatever gains feminism has made in involving fathers in the rearing of their children, I still think virtually all of us spend the most formative years of our lives very much in the presence of women.
Reynolds Price

What drew me to both study and activism was the formative experience of the civil rights movement.
David E. Price

More Formative Quotations

Formative Translations

formative in German is bildend, formend
formative in Italian is formante
formative in Norwegian is grunnleggende
formative in Spanish is formativo

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