Forms — Meaning, Definition & Synonyms

Meaning & Definition of Forms

Forms (noun)

1. the shape and structure of something as distinguished from its material
2. a body (as of a person) especially in its external appearance or as distinguished from the face, figure
3. something that can be seen only as a shape or outline
4. a form or medium of expression recognized as fine art
5. an unconventional form or medium in which impulses regarded as artistic may be expressed
6. an undertaking or activity enhanced by a high level of skill or refinement
7. a parallel and sometimes less important form of a word, stem, or formative element in a given language or dialect
8. the simplest form of something; specifically, the form of a square matrix that has zero elements everywhere except along the principal diagonal
9. a linguistic form that occurs only in compounds or derivatives and can be distinguished descriptively from an affix by its ability to occur as one immediate constituent of a form whose only other immediate constituent is an affix (such as cephal- in cephalic) or by its being derived from an independent word (such as electro- representing electric in electromagnet or para- representing parachute in paratrooper) or can be distinguished historically from an affix by the fact that it is borrowed from another language in which it is descriptively a word or a combining form (such as French mal giving English mal- in malodorous)
10. a small variant form of some bacteria (as those causing anthrax, Lyme disease, and tuberculosis) that typically lacks a cell wall and displays resistance to antibiotics
11. the body form that characterizes a kind of organism (such as a species) at maturity; also, a kind of organism
12. a meaningful unit of speech (such as a morpheme, word, or sentence) —called also speech form

Forms (verb)

1. to give a form or shape to, shape or mold into a certain state or after a particular model
2. to arrange themselves in
3. to model by instruction and discipline
4. to take up a formation next to