The difference between Form and Shape

When used as nouns, form means the shape or visible structure of a thing or person, whereas shape means the status or condition of something.

When used as verbs, form means to assume (a certain shape or visible structure), whereas shape means to create or make.

check bellow for the other definitions of Form and Shape

  1. Form as a noun (physical):

    To do with shape. The shape or visible structure of a thing or person. A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold. Characteristics not involving atomic components. A long bench with no back. The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body. The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.

  2. Form as a noun (social):

    To do with structure or procedure. An order of doing things, as in religious ritual. Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula. Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system. Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality. A class or rank in society. A criminal record; loosely, past history (in a given area). A class or year of school pupils (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the year, as in ).

    Examples:

    "a republican form of government"

    "a matter of mere form'"

  3. Form as a noun:

    A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.

    Examples:

    "To apply for the position, complete the application form."

  4. Form as a noun:

    Level of performance.

    Examples:

    "The team's form has been poor this year."

    "The orchestra was on top form this evening."

  5. Form as a noun (grammar):

    A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.

    Examples:

    "participial forms;  verb forms'"

  6. Form as a noun:

    The den or home of a hare.

  7. Form as a noun (computing, programming):

    A window or dialogue box.

  8. Form as a noun (taxonomy):

    An infraspecific rank.

  9. Form as a noun (printing, dated):

    The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.

  10. Form as a noun (geometry):

    A quantic.

  11. Form as a noun (sports, fitness):

    A specific way of performing a movement.

  1. Form as a verb (transitive):

    To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).

    Examples:

    "When you kids form a straight line I'll hand out the lollies."

  2. Form as a verb (transitive):

    To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.

    Examples:

    "Roll out the dough to form a thin sheet."

  3. Form as a verb (intransitive):

    To take shape.

    Examples:

    "When icicles start to form on the eaves you know the roads will be icy."

  4. Form as a verb:

    To put together or bring into being; assemble.

    Examples:

    "The socialists did not have enough MPs to form a government."

    "Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed The Beatles in Liverpool in 1960."

  5. Form as a verb (transitive, linguistics):

    To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.

    Examples:

    "By adding "-ness", you can form a noun from an adjective."

  6. Form as a verb (transitive):

    To constitute, to compose, to make up.

    Examples:

    "Teenagers form the bulk of extreme traffic offenders."

  7. Form as a verb:

    To mould or model by instruction or discipline.

    Examples:

    "Singing in a choir helps to form a child's sociality."

  8. Form as a verb:

    To provide (a hare) with a form.

  9. Form as a verb (electrical, historical, transitive):

    To treat (plates) to prepare them for introduction into a storage battery, causing one plate to be composed more or less of spongy lead, and the other of lead peroxide. This was formerly done by repeated slow alternations of the charging current, but later the plates or grids were coated or filled, one with a paste of red lead and the other with litharge, introduced into the cell, and formed by a direct charging current.

  1. Shape as a noun:

    The status or condition of something

    Examples:

    "The used bookshop wouldn't offer much due to the poor shape of the book."

  2. Shape as a noun:

    Condition of personal health, especially muscular health.

    Examples:

    "The vet checked to see what kind of shape the animal was in."

    "We exercise to keep in good physical shape."

  3. Shape as a noun:

    The appearance of something, especially its outline.

    Examples:

    "He cut a square shape out of the cake."

    "What shape shall we use for the cookies? Stars, circles, or diamonds?"

  4. Shape as a noun:

    Form; formation.

  5. Shape as a noun (iron manufacture):

    A rolled or hammered piece, such as a bar, beam, angle iron, etc., having a cross section different from merchant bar.

  6. Shape as a noun (iron manufacture):

    A piece which has been roughly forged nearly to the form it will receive when completely forged or fitted.

  7. Shape as a noun (cookery, now, rare):

    A mould for making jelly, blancmange etc., or a piece of such food formed moulded into a particular shape.

  8. Shape as a noun (programming):

    In the Hack programming language, a group of data fields each of which has a name and a data type.

  1. Shape as a verb (Northern England, Scotland, rare):

    To create or make.

    Examples:

    "Earth was shapen by God for God's folk."

  2. Shape as a verb (transitive):

    To give something a shape and definition.

    Examples:

    "'Shape the dough into a pretzel. For my art project, I plan to shape my clay lump into a bowl."

  3. Shape as a verb:

    To form or manipulate something into a certain shape.

  4. Shape as a verb:

    (of a country, person, etc) To give influence to.

  5. Shape as a verb:

    To suit; to be adjusted or conformable.

    Examples:

    "rfquotek Shakespeare"

  6. Shape as a verb (obsolete):

    To imagine; to conceive.

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