How to Use formative in a Sentence

formative

adjective

• This experience had a formative influence on his art.
• That seems to be the formative sweet spot.
  — Michael Schneider, Variety, 18 Aug. 2025
• These are the most formative years for our sense of self in some ways.
  — David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 2 Feb. 2024
• That’s one of my formative records.
  — Devon Ivie, Vulture, 11 Mar. 2026
• The house was a formative place for Gilberg.
  — Los Angeles Times, 13 Jan. 2026
• This was our [formative years].
  — Tereza Shkurtaj, PEOPLE, 28 June 2026
• What was the formative sound of your childhood?
  — Kathryn Schulz, New Yorker, 9 Feb. 2026
• Both are clever nods to her formative years in West Africa.
  — Condé Nast, Condé Nast Traveler, 2 June 2026
• For the rest, the struggle is formative.
  — Rebecca Mead, New Yorker, 3 Sep. 2025
• But the worst part by far was losing those formative years with his children.
  — Jake Pearson, ProPublica, 27 Apr. 2023
• Hannah has plenty of her own formative wounds wrapped in the show.
  — Time, 20 Sep. 2022
• There have been a lot of style eras between that formative bag and her Coach show look.
  — Halie Lesavage, Harper's BAZAAR, 14 Feb. 2023
• There have always been outliers, though, even in the game’s formative years.
  — James Wallace, New York Times, 5 Sep. 2025
• As if most of us spent our formative years robbing people at gunpoint.
  — The Editors, National Review, 2 Feb. 2024
• Scott Spiegel was a huge part of my formative years back in Michigan.
  — Glenn Garner, Deadline, 1 Sep. 2025
• The three friends endured the pandemic at a formative time in their lives.
  — Andrea Marks, Rolling Stone, 28 Mar. 2023
• Few cultural figures did more to shape hip-hop in its formative years.
  — Jason Newman, Rolling Stone, 10 Mar. 2026
• That was really formative and evolved my world.
  — Claire Salinda, Los Angeles Times, 13 Mar. 2026
• Beyond the beauty shop, the football field and church were formative sites.
  — Mandy Taheri, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Nov. 2025
• Though Lauer’s career has taken twists and turns since, those were formative years.
  — Maddie Lee, Los Angeles Times, 27 May 2026
• That’s such a formative memory for me.
  — Caroline Mimbs Nyce, New Yorker, 4 Feb. 2026
• But those who knew her during her formative years spotted her ease on stage from the beginning.
  — The Indianapolis Star, 10 Nov. 2022
• Like most conflicts, a formative struggle over power is at the heart of the dispute.
  — Ben Pryor, Outside Online, 13 Oct. 2022
• Dating is a normal part of adolescence – and a formative one at that.
  — Kirsi Goldynia, CNN, 15 Feb. 2023
• Was there one movie or even a single scene that was especially formative?
  — The New Yorker, 14 Feb. 2023
• No taste is more indicative of my formative years than the cheesy, meaty crunch of a Crispito.
  — Tara Massouleh McCay, Southern Living, 8 Aug. 2025
• Yet much of her most formative work has taken place far outside the walls of Western medicine.
  — Kaitlyn Gomez, USA Today, 27 Feb. 2026
• Smith was born in Utah and spent some of his formative years in the Beehive State.
  — Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune, 22 Aug. 2023
• Few rituals are more formative and unifying than youth and high-school sports.
  — Chris Murphy, The Atlantic, 20 May 2026
• Martínez named Crispín after his father, who was, and is, a formative presence for him.
  — Sean Timberlake, Sacbee.com, 29 Apr. 2026