Word.ws English Dictionary

formalise

formalise is the alternative spelling of formalize.

Meaning of formalize

Verb

formalize (third-person singular simple present formalizes, present participle formalizing, simple past and past participle formalized)

  1. (transitive) To give something a definite form; to shape.
  2. (intransitive) To develop into a definite form.
    • We have more fun and exciting fundraisers planned, and we're trying to carefully budget them so they don't cut into your life savings. As they formalize, we'll widely publicize these events.1984 February 4, Marsha Levine, “Pride '84”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 28, page 5
  3. To give something a formal or official standing.
  4. To act with formality.
  5. To rigorously prove a mathematical result.

Forms of formalise

third-person singular presentformalises
present participleformalising
past participleformalised
pastformalised

Origin of formalise

From formal + -ise.

Words formed from formalise

Questions about formalise

What is formalise the alternative spelling of?
Formalise is the alternative spelling of formalize.

Words near formalise in the dictionary

  1. formalinizing
  2. formalins
  3. formalisable
  4. formalisation
  5. formalisations
  6. formalise
  7. formalised
  8. formaliser
  9. formalisers
  10. formalises
  11. formalish

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: formalise (page history and authors); formalize (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-formalise.wav.

Cite this entry: “formalise.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/formalise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.