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n. pl. Formalities. The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, etc. Form without substance. Adherence to forms and customs. Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality. An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode. pl. The dress prescribed for any body of men, academic, municipal, or sacerdotal. That which is formal; the formal part. The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence.
- (Scholastic. Philos.) 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. The conditions which must be observed in making contracts, and the words which the law gives to be used in order to render them valid; it also signifies the conditions which the law requires to make regular proceedings.
