Formal

She spoke formal English, without any dialect.

I'd like to make a formal complaint.

Despite efforts by limnologists and freshwater biologists to create a formal definition of “pond”, there is still no universal distinction between a “pond” and a “lake”.

Formal linguistics ignores the vocabulary of languages and focuses solely on their grammar.

THE THREE DOMINANT FORMS IN METALSMITHING […] At present, there are but three basic volumetric forms dominating the work of metalsmiths, the spherical (usually in its most practical form, the domical), the cylindrical, and the cubical. […] The possibilities for further variations on them are all but exhausted, there being little chance to express new and unusual ideas within the framework of such limited choices. As a result, much of twentieth-century metalsmithing has relied on surface enrichment rather than formal development for its originality.

The formal stage is a critical part of any child's development.

Formal wear must be worn at my wedding!

He's always very formal, and I wish he'd relax a bit.

When they became a formal club the rowers built a small boathouse.

A set of words can be formal cognates only if they can be derived from a common ancestor by regular sound laws.

Only formal proofs, which derive theorems logically from their given axioms, are considered satisfactory in modern mathematics.

Formal series are defined without any reference to convergence.

Well, I open up the door / And much to my surprise / The girls were wearin' formals / And the boys were wearin' ties

Jenny took Sam to her Year 12 formal.