formation
Pluralformations (some meanings)
- 1The process by which something comes into being and develops its characteristics.
Sleep plays a key role in the formation of long-term memories.
The formation of the islands took millions of years of volcanic activity.
Similardevelopment, creation, genesis, emergence, making
Oppositedestruction, breakdown
- 2The act of assembling or establishing a group, organization, or structure.
The formation of the committee was announced at Monday's meeting.
Her law firm handles the formation of small businesses and nonprofits.
Similarestablishment, creation, founding, foundation, inception
Oppositedissolution, disbandment
Note
Built exactly as it looks: form plus -ation, through Latin fōrmātiō from fōrmō, "to form". The noun names the doing, so it usually takes of, as in the formation of a committee or of a company. In "cloud formation" it shades toward the process clouds go through on their own, where the coming-into-being sense begins. The thing that results belongs to the structured result.
- 3Anything that possesses a definite structure or form.
A delicate crystal formation hung from the cave's ceiling.
Frost formations covered every window of the cabin by morning.
Similarstructure, pattern, configuration, arrangement, shape
- 4An arrangement maintained by moving troops, ships, or aircraft, such as a wedge, line abreast, or echelon; often used in the phrase "in formation."
The squadron held its formation despite heavy turbulence.
The destroyers steamed in formation toward the narrow strait.
Similararray, order, arrangement, pattern, configuration
Oppositedisarray
Note
Here the word describes geometry in motion, such as a wedge, an echelon or a line abreast. Its natural home is the phrase in formation: aircraft fly in formation and ships steam in formation. The arrangement has to be actively kept up, which is why the verbs around it are hold, keep and break. Sport borrowed this sense for a team's lineup.
- 5An arrangement of a team's players on the field, designed to make certain plays possible.
The quarterback read the defense and shifted the formation at the line of scrimmage.
Switching to a 4-3-3 formation gave the midfield far more control.
Similarlineup, setup, system, alignment, set
Note
On the pitch, formations are usually named by digits read from the defense forward. Barney Ronay, writing in 2017, credits Chelsea's "new 3-4-3 formation" with freeing N'Golo Kanté to play his best. The number sits before the noun as a label, as in a 4-4-2 formation. Once the context is clear, it can also stand alone: the side switched to a 3-4-3.
- 6A layer of rock whose material shares a common origin.
The Morrison Formation has yielded thousands of dinosaur fossils across the American West.
Engineers surveyed the shale formation before drilling the first well.
Note
The geologist's basic named unit of rock, and the name is formal. The Morrison Formation takes a capital F, the way a place name does. Common origin unites a formation, not appearance: Chinle Miller notes that over a broad region its color may change. Because formations are mapped and traced across whole landscapes, the word suits large, continuous bodies of rock rather than a single outcrop.
- 7A military body, such as a brigade, division, or wing, that brings together several units or lesser formations under a single command.
The armored formation included two tank brigades and a logistics battalion.
Each formation in the exercise reported to a joint headquarters.
Note
An army's organizational word, and its formations nest inside one another: a division is built from brigades, which are formations themselves. It names a standing place in the chain of command, not a shape on the ground. That is how to tell it from the arrangement of moving units: an armored formation exists between battles, while troops in formation are holding their positions right now.
- 8The guided development of a person toward a deeper grasp of a particular vocation, as in the training of priests.
Seminarians undergo years of spiritual and academic formation before ordination.
The hospital views mentorship as central to the formation of compassionate physicians.
Similartraining, education, preparation, development, grounding
- 9In category theory, a pair of parallel functors between two categories together with a transformation from one to the other, taken as a single structure.
The lemma constructs a formation whose transformation is invertible.
Every formation in the diagram pairs the two categories with parallel functors and a transformation between them.
Note
A mathematician's term that shares only its name with the everyday senses. In category theory, a formation is a bundle of data: two categories C and D, two parallel functors F and G from C to D, and a transformation from F to G. It is often written as a single tuple. Nothing about shape or arrangement carries over from ordinary usage.
Practice
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Origin
From Middle English formacioun, borrowed from Old French formacion, from Latin fōrmātiō, itself from the verb fōrmō ("to form"). It can be seen as "form" plus the suffix "-ation."