formalistic

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The argument advanced by the IRS is a formalistic one that results in an absurdity: Cryptocurrency wasn’t explicitly included in the list of items that meet the “readily valued property” exemption to the appraisal rules.

From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 5, 2026

Kabalevsky succumbed to Stalin’s decrees against formalistic art, and he has never been taken seriously in the West.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 29, 2025

As a filmmaker, Hogg is a seemingly incongruous blend of free-flowing and formalistic.

From Seattle Times • Oct. 27, 2021

“This would be a clean, formalistic way for the court to resolve the case,” Andrew Koppelman, a law professor at Northwestern University, said in an interview.

From New York Times • Apr. 29, 2015

The passages referred to by the writer, I conceive to be more imaginative, and less formalistic and logical, than he supposes.

From Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D.D. Edited by his Daughter by Dewey, Mary Elizabeth