format

Etymology

Via French format and German Format, from New Latin liber fōrmātus (“book fashioned”), from fōrmō (“I shape, fashion”).

noun

1. The layout of a publication or document.
   The older manuscripts had been written in a much larger format than that found convenient for university work. 1896, George Haven Putnam, Books and Their Makers During the Middle Ages
2. (by extension) The form of presentation of something.
3. (radio) The type of programming that a radio station broadcasts; such as a certain genre of music, news, sports, talk, etc.
   The radio station changed the format of its evening program.
4. (computing) A file type.

verb

1. To create or edit the layout of a document.
2. Change a document so it will fit onto a different type of page.
3. (computing) To prepare a mass storage medium for initial use, erasing any existing data in the process.
   I lost weeks of work when I inadvertently formatted my hard drive.