formative

[fawr-muh-tiv] /ˈfɔr mə tɪv/
adjective
1.
giving form or shape; forming; shaping; fashioning; molding:
a formative process in manufacturing.
2.
pertaining to formation or development:
a child's most formative years.
3.
Biology.
  1. capable of developing new cells or tissue by cell division and differentiation:
    formative tissue.
  2. concerned with the formation of an embryo, organ, or the like.
4.
Grammar. pertaining to a formative.
noun
5.
Grammar. a derivational affix, particularly one that determines the part of speech of the derived word, as -ness, in loudness, hardness, etc.
6.
Linguistics. (in generative grammar) any element, as a word, affix, or inflectional ending, functioning as a minimal syntactic unit that can be used in forming larger constructions.
Origin
1480-90; < Middle French formatif. See formation, -ive
Related forms
formatively, adverb
formativeness, noun
nonformative, adjective
nonformatively, adverb
subformative, adjective
subformatively, adverb
subformativeness, noun
unformative, adjective
Can be confused
formative, formidable.
Synonyms
2. receptive, impressionable, susceptible.
Examples from the web for formative
  • Digital tools offer too many conveniences and well-digested materials for students to use them in meaningful formative ways.
  • Constructed qualitative case studies for clients emphasizing summative and formative issues.
  • The bard's formative years uncovered in the first part of a three-volume autobiography.
  • But high-tech orbiting telescopes are lifting the veil on our universe's formative years.
  • As far as the global warming is concerned, the theory moved past the formative stages a long time ago.
  • These students come back to full-time study having spent their formative years outside the academic world.
  • Although the white paper is still in its formative stage, some signals are emerging from ministers.
  • There's evidence that a good storm of comets in a planet's formative stages could provide an ocean or two.
  • Fast-charging technology is still in a formative stage of development.
  • Those formative years left him firm of body, inquisitive of mind and resolute in spirit.
British Dictionary definitions for formative

formative

/ˈfɔːmətɪv/
adjective
1.
of or relating to formation, development, or growth: formative years
2.
shaping; moulding: a formative experience
3.
(of tissues and cells in certain parts of an organism) capable of growth and differentiation
4.
functioning in the formation of derived, inflected, or compound words
noun
5.
an inflectional or derivational affix
6.
(in generative grammar) any of the minimum units of a sentence that have syntactic function
Derived Forms
formatively, adverb
formativeness, noun
Word Origin and History for formative
adj.

late 15c., from Middle French formatif, from Latin format-, past participle stem of formare (see form (n.)).