Formulate

How to spell formulate

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce formulate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does formulate mean?

1. verbTo create or express something, such as a plan, idea, or substance, in a precise and systematic way.

Formulate in a sentence

• The committee met for hours to formulate a realistic budget for the year.

• Chemists in the lab worked to formulate a cream that would not irritate sensitive skin.

Where does formulate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This verb is built on 'formula', which came into English directly from Latin in the seventeenth century. In Latin, 'formula' was the diminutive of 'forma', meaning 'shape' or 'form', so it literally meant 'a little form' and was used for a fixed pattern, rule, or set wording. From that sense of a precise, repeatable pattern, English speakers in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries created the verb 'formulate', meaning to express something in a clear, systematic form, whether a chemical recipe, a plan, or a carefully worded statement. The same 'forma' root underlies a whole family of everyday words such as 'form', 'format', 'reform', and 'uniform'. The spelling trap is the unstressed middle: the 'u' is barely heard, so writers can drop it or guess at the vowel, yet it is the surviving trace of that Latin diminutive 'formula'.

How the word is built

• form (shape)
• -ul- (diminutive, from Latin formula 'little form')
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)