Heisenberg seems to have been motivated by his intense annoyance that Schrödinger's more intuitive version of quantum theory was more widely accepted than his own, even though both formalisms led to the same results.
Source: wiktionary
Formalism
//ˈfɔɹml̩ˌɪzm̩//
Synonyms for "formalism" (11 found)
Ranked by relevance and common usage.
Closest matches (3)
Strong matches (3)
Related words (5)
Related word relations
OpenGloss and ConceptNet supply richer edges like generalizations, collocations, and derivations.
More general
9 entriesAntonyms
1 entriesRelated terms
2 entriesderived
7 entriesderived from
1 entrieshas context
6 entriesis a
3 entriesrelated to
7 entriesTranslations
31 translations across 23 languages.
Belarusian
1 entries- фармалі́зм noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Bulgarian
1 entries- формали́зъм noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Catalan
1 entries- formalisme noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Chinese Mandarin
4 entries- 形式主義 /形式主义 noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
- 形式主義 /形式主义 noun (literature: structural approach to interpretation)
- 形式主義 /形式主义 noun (music: tendency to elevate formal above expressive value)
- 形式主義 /形式主义 noun (mathematics, physics: a particular theory or description of a state of affairs)
Czech
1 entries- formalismus noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Finnish
1 entries- formalismi noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
French
1 entries- formalisme noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Georgian
1 entries- ფორმალიზმი noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
German
1 entries- Formalismus noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Hungarian
1 entries- formalizmus noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Italian
1 entries- formalismo noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Japanese
1 entries- 形式主義 noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Kazakh
4 entries- формализм noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
- формализм noun (literature: structural approach to interpretation)
- формализм noun (music: tendency to elevate formal above expressive value)
- формализм noun (mathematics, physics: a particular theory or description of a state of affairs)
Macedonian
1 entries- формализам noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Northern Sami
1 entries- formalisma noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Polish
2 entries- formalizm noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
- formalizm noun (literature: structural approach to interpretation)
Portuguese
1 entries- formalismo noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Romanian
1 entries- formalism noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Russian
1 entries- формали́зм noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Serbo-Croatian
2 entries- formalizam noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
- формализам noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Slovak
1 entries- formalizmus noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Spanish
1 entries- formalismo noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Ukrainian
1 entries- формалі́зм noun (strict adherence to a given form of conduct, practice, etc.)
Sample sentences
3 total sentences available.
Dirac approaches quantum mechanics by means of a so-called symbolic method, the bracket formalism. Although this formalism has a mathematical flavour, in fact, it is based upon bold claims which lack mathematical foundation.
Source: wiktionary
1992, tuart M. Shieber, Constraint-based Grammar Formalisms, The MIT Press, page 51, It is this abstraction that justifies considering these methods as characterizing constraint-based formalisms in general, rather than an individual formalism.
Source: wiktionary
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.