Create vs. Form — What's the Difference?
By Urooj Arif & Fiza Rafique — Updated on March 10, 2024
Create involves bringing something new into existence through imagination or innovation, while form refers to the process of shaping or assembling parts into a whole.
Difference Between Create and Form
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Creating is an act that often involves imagination, innovation, and originality. It's about bringing something new into existence, whether it be a piece of art, a novel idea, or a unique solution to a problem. Forming, on the other hand, emphasizes the process of shaping or assembling something. It involves giving structure or shape to materials or concepts, but not necessarily inventing something new.
They are often starting from a concept or vision that exists in the mind, translating intangible ideas into tangible realities. Creating can encompass a broad spectrum of activities, from writing a poem to designing a new piece of technology. Forming is more about the methodical approach to constructing or arranging parts or elements into a particular configuration, such as forming clay into a vase or forming a team to accomplish a task.
The essence of creation lies in its novelty and originality. It is the birth of something that did not previously exist in that form or function. In contrast, forming can involve working with existing ideas or materials to mold them into a desired shape or structure, which may not be inherently new but requires skill and vision to assemble.
Creators are often seen as visionaries or innovators, pushing the boundaries of what is known or accepted to introduce new concepts or artifacts into the world. Formers, while also important and skilled, work within the realms of shaping, organizing, or constructing within established paradigms or with existing components.
While both creating and forming are essential to development and innovation, they serve different purposes in the process of bringing ideas to life. Creating is about the inception of new ideas, whereas forming is about the realization or embodiment of these ideas into physical, tangible forms.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Bringing something new into existence through innovation
Shaping or assembling parts into a whole
Focus
Originality and novelty
Structure and assembly
Examples
Writing a novel, inventing a gadget
Molding clay, forming a business strategy
Required Skills
Creativity, imagination, vision
Methodical planning, physical or organizational skills
Outcome
New ideas, products, or artworks
Organized structures or shaped materials
Compare with Definitions
Create
Involves inventing or producing something new.
She created a groundbreaking app.
Form
Involves shaping or assembling something.
The sculptor formed the clay into a figure.
Create
Focuses on the conceptual or initial phase.
Designers create concepts for new products.
Form
Focuses on the physical or structural phase.
Engineers form materials into functional designs.
Create
Often associated with originality.
Innovators create solutions that change industries.
Form
More about the process than originality.
Builders form the foundation of a house.
Create
Can lead to unique inventions or artistic works.
He created a novel with a unique narrative structure.
Form
Requires technical skill or organization.
A leader forms a team with diverse skills.
Create
Requires imagination and creativity.
Artists create by translating visions into art.
Form
Can involve organizing ideas or materials.
She formed a comprehensive business plan.
Create
Bring (something) into existence
He created a thirty-acre lake
Over 170 jobs were created
Form
The way in which a thing exists, acts, or manifests itself
An element usually found in the form of a gas.
Create
Make a fuss; complain
Little kids create because they hate being ignored
Form
The shape and structure of an object
The form of a snowflake.
Create
To cause to exist; bring into being
Created a new music school.
Form
The body or outward appearance of a person or an animal; figure
In the fog we could see two forms standing on the bridge.
Create
To give rise to; produce
That remark created a stir.
Form
A model of the human figure or part of it used for displaying clothes.
Create
To produce through artistic or imaginative effort
Create a poem.
Create a dramatic role.
Form
A mold for the setting of concrete.
Create
To invest with an office or title; appoint
He was created a baron.
Form
(Philosophy) The essential or ideal nature of something, especially as distinguished from its matter or material being.
Create
Created.
Form
A kind, type, or variety
A cat is a form of mammal.
Create
(transitive) To bring into existence; (sometimes in particular:)
You can create the color orange by mixing yellow and red.
Form
(Botany) A subdivision of a variety usually differing in one trivial characteristic, such as flower color.
Create
To bring into existence out of nothing, without the prior existence of the materials or elements used.
Form
Method of arrangement or manner of coordinating elements in verbal or musical composition
Presented my ideas in outline form.
A treatise in the form of a dialogue.
Create
To make or produce from other (e.g. raw, unrefined or scattered) materials or combinable elements or ideas; to design or invest with a new form, shape, function, etc.
Couturiers create exclusive garments for an affluent clientele.
Form
A particular type or example of such arrangement
The essay is a literary form.
Create
(transitive) To cause, to bring (a non-object) about by an action, behavior, or event, to occasion.
Crop failures created food shortages and high prices; his stubbornness created many difficulties
A sudden chemical spill on the highway created a chain‐collision which created a record traffic jam.
Form
Procedure as determined or governed by regulation or custom
Gave his consent solely as a matter of form.
Create
(transitive) To confer or invest with a rank or title of nobility, to appoint, ordain or constitute.
Henry VIII created him a Duke.
Last month, the queen created two barons.
Under the concordate with Belgium, at least one Belgian clergyman must be created cardinal; by tradition, every archbishop of Mechelen is thus created a cardinal.
Form
Manners or conduct as governed by etiquette, decorum, or custom
Arriving late to a wedding is considered bad form.
Create
(intransitive) To be or do something creative, imaginative, originative.
Children usually enjoy creating, never mind if it is of any use!
Form
A fixed order of words or procedures, as for use in a ceremony
"As they had never had a funeral aboard a ship, they began rehearsing the forms so as to be ready" (Arthur Conan Doyle).
Create
(transitive) In theatre, to be the first performer of a role; to originate a character.
Form
A document with blanks for the insertion of details or information
Insurance forms.
Create
To make a fuss, complain; to shout.
Form
Performance considered with regard to acknowledged criteria
A musician at the top of her form.
Create
(obsolete) Created, resulting from creation.
Form
A pattern of behavior or performance
Remained true to form and showed up late.
Create
Created; composed; begotten.
Hearts create of duty and zeal.
Form
Fitness, as of an athlete or animal, with regard to health or training
A dog in excellent form.
Create
To bring into being; to form out of nothing; to cause to exist.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
Form
A racing form.
Create
To effect by the agency, and under the laws, of causation; to be the occasion of; to cause; to produce; to form or fashion; to renew.
Your eye in ScotlandWould create soldiers.
Create in me a clean heart.
Form
A grade in a British secondary school or in some American private schools
The sixth form.
Create
To invest with a new form, office, or character; to constitute; to appoint; to make; as, to create one a peer.
Form
A linguistic form.
Create
Make or cause to be or to become;
Make a mess in one's office
Create a furor
Form
The external aspect of words with regard to their inflections, pronunciation, or spelling.
Create
Bring into existence;
The company was created 25 years ago
He created a new movement in painting
Form
Chiefly British A long seat; a bench.
Create
Pursue a creative activity; be engaged in a creative activity;
Don't disturb him--he is creating
Form
The lair or resting place of a hare.
Create
Invest with a new title, office, or rank;
Create one a peer
Form
To give form to; shape
Form clay into figures.
Create
Create by artistic means;
Create a poem
Schoenberg created twelve-tone music
Picasso created Cubism
Auden made verses
Form
To make or fashion by shaping
Form figures out of clay.
Create
Create or manufacture a man-made product;
We produce more cars than we can sell
The company has been making toys for two centuries
Form
To develop in the mind; conceive
Her reading led her to form a different opinion.
Form
To arrange oneself in
Holding out his arms, the cheerleader formed a T. The acrobats formed a pyramid.
Form
To organize or arrange
The environmentalists formed their own party.
Form
To fashion, train, or develop by instruction, discipline, or precept
Formed the recruits into excellent soldiers.
Form
To come to have; develop or acquire
He formed the habit of walking to work.
Form
To enter into (a relationship)
They formed a friendship.
Form
To constitute or compose, especially out of separate elements
The bones that form the skeleton.
Form
To produce (a tense, for example) by inflection
Form the pluperfect.
Form
To make (a word) by derivation or composition.
Form
To become formed or shaped
Add enough milk so the dough forms easily into balls.
Form
To come into being by taking form; arise
Clouds will form in the afternoon.
Form
To assume a specified form, shape, or pattern
The soldiers formed into a column.
Form
To do with shape.
Form
The shape or visible structure of a thing or person.
Form
A thing that gives shape to other things as in a mold.
Form
Regularity, beauty, or elegance.
Form
(philosophy) The inherent nature of an object; that which the mind itself contributes as the condition of knowing; that in which the essence of a thing consists.
Form
Characteristics not involving atomic components. en
Form
(dated) A long bench with no back.
Form
(fine arts) The boundary line of a material object. In painting, more generally, the human body.
Form
(crystallography) The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
Form
(social) To do with structure or procedure.
Form
An order of doing things, as in religious ritual.
Form
Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula.
Form
Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system.
A republican form of government
Form
Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality.
A matter of mere form
Form
(archaic) A class or rank in society.
Form
(UK) A criminal record; loosely, past history (in a given area).
Form
Level of performance.
The team's form has been poor this year.
The orchestra was on top form this evening.
Form
A class or year of school pupils (often preceded by an ordinal number to specify the year, as in sixth form).
Form
A blank document or template to be filled in by the user.
To apply for the position, complete the application form.
Form
A specimen document to be copied or imitated.
Form
(grammar) A grouping of words which maintain grammatical context in different usages; the particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech.
Participial forms;
Verb forms
Form
The den or home of a hare.
Form
A window or dialogue box.
Form
Essentials
Form
(taxonomy) An infraspecific rank.
Form
The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
Form
(geometry) A quantic.
Form
A specific way of performing a movement.
Form
(transitive) To assume (a certain shape or visible structure).
When you kids form a straight line I'll hand out the lollies.
Form
(transitive) To give (a shape or visible structure) to a thing or person.
Roll out the dough to form a thin sheet.
Form
(intransitive) To take shape.
When icicles start to form on the eaves you know the roads will be icy.
Form
To put together or bring into being; assemble.
The socialists did not have enough MPs to form a government.
Paul McCartney and John Lennon formed The Beatles in Liverpool in 1960.
Form
To create (a word) by inflection or derivation.
By adding "-ness", you can form a noun from an adjective.
Form
(transitive) To constitute, to compose, to make up.
Teenagers form the bulk of extreme traffic offenders.
Form
To mould or model by instruction or discipline.
Singing in a choir helps to form a child's sociality.
Form
To provide (a hare) with a form.
Form
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.
Form
The shape and structure of anything, as distinguished from the material of which it is composed; particular disposition or arrangement of matter, giving it individuality or distinctive character; configuration; figure; external appearance.
The form of his visage was changed.
And woven close close, both matter, form, and style.
Form
Constitution; mode of construction, organization, etc.; system; as, a republican form of government.
Form
Established method of expression or practice; fixed way of proceeding; conventional or stated scheme; formula; as, a form of prayer.
Those whom form of lawsCondemned to die.
Form
Show without substance; empty, outside appearance; vain, trivial, or conventional ceremony; conventionality; formality; as, a matter of mere form.
Though well we may not pass upon his lifeWithout the form of justice.
Form
Orderly arrangement; shapeliness; also, comeliness; elegance; beauty.
The earth was without form and void.
He hath no form nor comeliness.
Form
A shape; an image; a phantom.
Form
That by which shape is given or determined; mold; pattern; model.
Form
A long seat; a bench; hence, a rank of students in a school; a class; also, a class or rank in society.
Form
The seat or bed of a hare.
As in a form sitteth a weary hare.
Form
The type or other matter from which an impression is to be taken, arranged and secured in a chase.
Form
The boundary line of a material object. In (painting), more generally, the human body.
Form
The particular shape or structure of a word or part of speech; as, participial forms; verbal forms.
Form
The combination of planes included under a general crystallographic symbol. It is not necessarily a closed solid.
Form
That assemblage or disposition of qualities which makes a conception, or that internal constitution which makes an existing thing to be what it is; - called essential or substantial form, and contradistinguished from matter; hence, active or formative nature; law of being or activity; subjectively viewed, an idea; objectively, a law.
Form
Mode of acting or manifestation to the senses, or the intellect; as, water assumes the form of ice or snow. In modern usage, the elements of a conception furnished by the mind's own activity, as contrasted with its object or condition, which is called the matter; subjectively, a mode of apprehension or belief conceived as dependent on the constitution of the mind; objectively, universal and necessary accompaniments or elements of every object known or thought of.
Form
The peculiar characteristics of an organism as a type of others; also, the structure of the parts of an animal or plant.
Form
To give form or shape to; to frame; to construct; to make; to fashion.
God formed man of the dust of the ground.
The thought that labors in my forming brain.
Form
To give a particular shape to; to shape, mold, or fashion into a certain state or condition; to arrange; to adjust; also, to model by instruction and discipline; to mold by influence, etc.; to train.
'T is education forms the common mind.
Thus formed for speed, he challenges the wind.
Form
To go to make up; to act as constituent of; to be the essential or constitutive elements of; to answer for; to make the shape of; - said of that out of which anything is formed or constituted, in whole or in part.
The diplomatic politicians . . . who formed by far the majority.
Form
To derive by grammatical rules, as by adding the proper suffixes and affixes.
Form
To treat (plates) so as to bring them to fit condition 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 now the plates or grids are 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.
Form
To take a form, definite shape, or arrangement; as, the infantry should form in column.
Form
To run to a form, as a hare.
Form
The phonological or orthographic sound or appearance of a word that can be used to describe or identify something;
The inflected forms of a word can be represented by a stem and a list of inflections to be attached
Form
A category of things distinguished by some common characteristic or quality;
Sculpture is a form of art
What kinds of desserts are there?
Form
A perceptual structure;
The composition presents problems for students of musical form
A visual pattern must include not only objects but the spaces between them
Form
Any spatial attributes (especially as defined by outline);
He could barely make out their shapes through the smoke
Form
Alternative names for the body of a human being;
Leonardo studied the human body
He has a strong physique
The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak
Form
The spatial arrangement of something as distinct from its substance;
Geometry is the mathematical science of shape
Form
The visual appearance of something or someone;
The delicate cast of his features
Form
(physical chemistry) a distinct state of matter in a system; matter that is identical in chemical composition and physical state and separated from other material by the phase boundary;
The reaction occurs in the liquid phase of the system
Form
A printed document with spaces in which to write;
He filled out his tax form
Form
(biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups;
A new strain of microorganisms
Form
An arrangement of the elements in a composition or discourse;
The essay was in the form of a dialogue
He first sketches the plot in outline form
Form
A particular mode in which something is manifested;
His resentment took the form of extreme hostility
Form
A body of students who are taught together;
Early morning classes are always sleepy
Form
An ability to perform well;
He was at the top of his form
The team was off form last night
Form
A life-size dummy used to display clothes
Form
A mold for setting concrete;
They built elaborate forms for pouring the foundation
Form
To compose or represent:
This wall forms the background of the stage setting
The branches made a roof
This makes a fine introduction
Form
Create (as an entity);
Social groups form everywhere
They formed a company
Form
Develop into a distinctive entity;
Our plans began to take shape
Form
Give a shape or form to;
Shape the dough
Form
Make something, usually for a specific function;
She molded the riceballs carefully
Form cylinders from the dough
Shape a figure
Work the metal into a sword
Form
Establish or impress firmly in the mind;
We imprint our ideas onto our children
Form
Give shape to;
Form the clay into a head
Common Curiosities
Can forming be a part of creating?
Yes, forming can be a part of creating, as the physical realization or shaping of an idea is often necessary to bring a creation to life.
What distinguishes a creator from a former?
A creator is someone who invents or conceives something new, while a former is someone who shapes or organizes existing elements into a new form.
What skills are essential for forming?
Essential skills for forming include planning, organizational skills, and the technical ability to shape or assemble materials or ideas.
What does it mean to create in art?
To create in art means to produce something original or novel, expressing imagination or vision through artistic mediums.
Can forming be creative?
Yes, forming can be creative, especially when it involves innovative ways of organizing or shaping that bring efficiency or aesthetic appeal.
What skills are essential for creating?
Essential skills for creating include creativity, imagination, problem-solving, and the ability to envision something new.
Can a person be both a creator and a former?
Yes, many individuals possess both the ability to create new concepts and the skills to form them into tangible realities.
How do you form a strategy?
Forming a strategy involves organizing ideas, goals, and actions into a coherent plan to achieve specific objectives.
Is creativity only related to creating?
While creativity is closely associated with creating, it can also play a role in forming, especially in finding innovative ways to shape or organize.
How important is the act of creating in innovation?
The act of creating is crucial in innovation, as it involves conceiving new ideas or products that can advance technology, art, or society.
What role does forming play in art?
In art, forming is the process of shaping materials like clay or metal into artworks, an essential step in realizing an artist's vision.
Is forming more practical than creating?
Forming can be seen as more practical in the sense that it involves the tangible assembly or shaping of materials, whereas creating can be more abstract or conceptual.
How do technological advancements impact creating and forming?
Technological advancements provide new tools and methods for both creating and forming, expanding the possibilities for innovation and efficiency in various fields.
Can something be formed without being created?
Yes, something can be formed from existing ideas or materials without the process involving the creation of something entirely new.
How do businesses use both creating and forming?
Businesses use creating to develop new ideas or products and forming to organize these ideas into strategies, plans, or structures for implementation.
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Written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
Co-written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
