Noun formation has 7 senses
  1. formation - an arrangement of people or things acting as a unit; "a defensive formation"; "a formation of planes"
    --1 is a kind of
    arrangement
    --1 has particulars:
     flight; military formation; backfield; secondary; line; line; center; flank, wing; head; rear
    Derived form: verb form2
  2. formation - a particular spatial arrangement
    --2 is a kind of
    placement, arrangement
    --2 has particulars: raster; rig, rigging; split
    Derived forms: verb form5, verb form7, verb form4
  3. formation, shaping - the fabrication of something in a particular shape
    --3 is a kind of fabrication, manufacture
    --3 has particulars:
     filing; forging; metalworking, metalwork; granulation; grooving, rifling
    Derived forms: verb form5, verb form7, verb form4
  4. constitution, establishment, formation, organization, organisation - the act of forming something; "the constitution of a PTA group last year"; "it was the establishment of his reputation"; "he still remembers the organization of the club"
    --4 is a kind of beginning, start, commencement
    --4 has particulars:
     unionization, unionisation; collectivization, collectivisation; communization, communisation; federation; colonization, colonisation, settlement
    Derived forms: verb form2, verb form5
  5. geological formation, formation - (geology) the geological features of the earth
    --5 is a kind of natural object
    --5 has particulars:
     aquifer; beach; cliff, drop, drop-off; delta; diapir; folium; foreshore; ice mass; lakefront; massif; monocline; mouth; natural depression, depression; natural elevation, elevation; oceanfront; Pillars of Hercules; range, mountain range, range of mountains, chain, mountain chain, chain of mountains; relict; ridge; shore; slope, incline, side; spring, fountain, outflow, outpouring, natural spring; talus, scree; vein, mineral vein; wall; water table, water level, groundwater level
  6. formation - natural process that causes something to form; "the formation of gas in the intestine"; "the formation of crystals"; "the formation of pseudopods"
    --6 is a kind of
    natural process, natural action, action, activity
    --6 has particulars: incrustation, encrustation; reticulation
  7. formation - creation by mental activity; "the formation of sentences"; "the formation of memories"
    --7 is a kind of
    creating by mental acts
    --7 has particulars: affixation
    Derived form: verb form3
,
TOP