Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Done as a formality; perfunctory.
  • adjective Provided in advance so as to prescribe form or describe items.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • As a matter of form.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective For the sake of form only.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adverb in a set manner without serious attention
  • adjective as a formality only

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[New Latin prō fōrmā : prō, for the sake of + fōrmā, ablative of fōrma, form.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin, see Latin etymology.

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Examples

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Comments

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  • See: pro forma invoice.

    June 19, 2009

  • By no means was this pro forma.

    September 14, 2010