forms

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of form.

   The new recruits collected their enrollment forms at the front desk.

   Carbon exists in several crystalline forms, including diamond and graphite.

   Note

   A plural that spreads across very different meanings of the noun: shapes and structures, things that shape other things as a mold does, and the varieties a substance can take, as when carbon has several crystalline forms. Older writing can also use it for long backless benches, a dated sense worth recognizing. The same spelling serves as the present-tense verb, so the sentence decides: the forms are ready, but ice forms.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of form.

   Sediment forms distinct layers along the canyon walls.

   A thin sheet of ice forms on the pond overnight.

   Note

   Both sides of the verb meet in this one form. It takes an object when something builds, gives shape to, or makes up something else (sediment forms layers). It stands alone when something simply takes shape (ice forms overnight). Grammarians use it for word-building too: a suffix forms a new word by derivation.

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