Meanings
alternative formal wear
- uncountableClothing suited to formal occasions
With their hair half up, and dressed demurely in black formalwear, they seemed like lost girls and conveyed little beyond a vague sense of urgency and dread; sure technicians all, they are not yet artists able to make their lashing limbs and inscrutable gestures mean something.
2007 April 10, Claudia La Rocco, “Austerity Meets Agitation While the Night City Glitters”, in New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
nounattire to wear on formal occasions in the evening
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Englishformal
- Proto-Indo-European*wes-
- Proto-Indo-European*woséyeti
- Proto-Germanic*wazjaną
- Proto-West Germanic*waʀjan
- Old Englishwerian
- Middle Englishweren
- Englishwear
- Englishformalwear
Translations
Finnish juhlavaatteet
- juhlavaatteetclothing suited to formal occasions
Latin cēnātōria
- cēnātōriaclothing suited to formal occasions
Polish strój formalny
- strój formalnyclothing suited to formal occasions
Cite this entry
formalwear. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/formalwear
“formalwear.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/formalwear. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “formalwear,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/formalwear.
Source: formalwear on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.