CONFORMITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does conformity mean? 

• CONFORMITY (noun)
  The noun CONFORMITY has 5 senses:

1. correspondence in form or appearance

2. acting according to certain accepted standards

3. orthodoxy in thoughts and belief

4. concurrence of opinion

5. hardened conventionality

  Familiarity information: CONFORMITY used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONFORMITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Correspondence in form or appearance

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

conformance; conformity

Hypernyms ("conformity" is a kind of...):

agreement; correspondence (compatibility of observations)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conformity"):

justness; nicety; rightness (conformity with some esthetic standard of correctness or propriety)

normality (conformity with the norm)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Acting according to certain accepted standards

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

abidance; compliance; conformation; conformity

Context example:

their financial statements are in conformity with generally accepted accounting practices

Hypernyms ("conformity" is a kind of...):

cooperation (joint operation or action)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conformity"):

formality (compliance with formal rules)

line (acting in conformity)

honoring; observance (conformity with law or custom or practice etc.)

keeping (conformity or harmony)

Antonym:

nonconformity (failure to conform to accepted standards of behavior)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Orthodoxy in thoughts and belief

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

conformism; conformity

Hypernyms ("conformity" is a kind of...):

orthodoxy (a belief or orientation agreeing with conventional standards)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conformity"):

conventionality (conformity with conventional thought and behavior)

legalism (strict conformity to the letter of the law rather than its spirit)

Antonym:

nonconformity (a lack of orthodoxy in thoughts or beliefs)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Concurrence of opinion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

accord; accordance; conformity

Context example:

we are in accord with your proposal

Hypernyms ("conformity" is a kind of...):

agreement (the verbal act of agreeing)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Hardened conventionality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

conformity; ossification

Hypernyms ("conformity" is a kind of...):

convention; conventionalism; conventionality (orthodoxy as a consequence of being conventional)

 Context examples 

Not particularly so; but he has a gentleman's tastes and habits, and he expects to have things managed in conformity to them.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

There are no conformity checks on the field.

(Health threats caused by mobile phone radiation, EUROPARL TV)

Issue associated with any deviations from device documented performance specifications relating to non-conformity during manufacture to the design of an item or to specified manufacturing processes.

(Manufacturing or Shipping Issue Associated with Medical Device, Food and Drug Administration)

They speedily discovered that their enjoyment of dancing and music was mutual, and that it arose from a general conformity of judgment in all that related to either.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Spelling and punctuation have been largely brought into conformity with modern British usage.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Her pleasant manners and cheerful conformity made her always valuable amongst them; but now she was absolutely necessary.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I may then depend upon this child being received as a pupil at Lowood, and there being trained in conformity to her position and prospects?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Miss Crawford's letter, which she had read so often as to make every line her own, was in frightful conformity with it.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

You will see what impetus would be given to your efforts and mine by our physical and mental union in marriage: the only union that gives a character of permanent conformity to the destinies and designs of human beings; and, passing over all minor caprices—all trivial difficulties and delicacies of feeling—all scruple about the degree, kind, strength or tenderness of mere personal inclination—you will hasten to enter into that union at once.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It surprised me when I first discovered that such was his intention: I had thought him a man unlikely to be influenced by motives so commonplace in his choice of a wife; but the longer I considered the position, education, &c., of the parties, the less I felt justified in judging and blaming either him or Miss Ingram for acting in conformity to ideas and principles instilled into them, doubtless, from their childhood.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)