formality
Noun
Meaning
The condition or quality of being formal, strictly ceremonious, precise, etc.
Form without substance.
Compliance with formal or conventional rules; ceremony; conventionality.
An established order; conventional rule of procedure; usual method; habitual mode.
The dress prescribed for any body of men, academical, municipal, or sacerdotal.
That which is formal; the formal part.
The quality which makes a thing what it is; essence.
The manner in which a thing is conceived or constituted by an act of human thinking; the result of such an act; as, animality and rationality are formalities.
Source: Webster's dictionarySynonyms
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Examples
When your mother asks, 'Do you want a piece of advice?' it is a mere formality. It doesn't matter if you answer yes or no. You're going to get it anyway.
In love affairs, there is no mediator like a merry, simple-hearted child - ever ready to cement divided hearts, to span the unfriendly gulf of custom, to melt the ice of cold reserve, and overthrow the separating walls of dread formality and pride.
It was not certain what significance the ceremony held, for unfortunately the records were lost, but the formality was no less sacred for being unintelligible.
We've become much more casual and much more relaxed in social interactions, where there was a formality and maybe a kind of respect at that time that doesn't exist now.
I despise formal restaurants. I find all of that formality to be very base and vile. I would much rather eat potato chips on the sidewalk.
What's happened - in our country, anyhow - is that the young people have shied away from the formality of the concert hall, that tie - and - tails philharmonic image.