adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a formidable enemy (= a very powerful enemy )
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The North Vietnamese army proved to be a formidable enemy.
a formidable obstacle (= one that makes it very difficult to achieve something )
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There are formidable obstacles to legal reform.
a formidable opponent (= a very strong opponent )
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In debate, he was a formidable opponent.
a formidable reputation (= one that makes people have a lot of respect for someone or something, or be afraid of them )
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After the meeting, I understood why he had such a formidable reputation.
a formidable/daunting task (= very difficult )
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Achieving these targets will be a formidable task.
a formidable/daunting/tough challenge (= a very difficult one )
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How to deal with waste is a daunting challenge for the west.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
as
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Only two years established, barely thirty-three years old, and already he had a reputation as formidable as his father's.
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He did, in fact, look every bit as formidable in his sleep as he did when awake.
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So Abelard's theory seems to present me with a challenge as formidable as climbing Mount Everest.
more
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Something else, wilder, uninhibited, even more formidable than her mind, was completely in charge.
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His campaign apparatus looks more formidable than his numbers in various polls seem to show.
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Wings bigger and blacker and more formidable than any he had yet seen.
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In the House, the task is more formidable .
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He looked taller, more formidable , more patrician.
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In a curious way he seemed more formidable than before.
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He looked somehow smarter and more formidable now, than at the funeral.
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Alone with Damian Flint Rachel found him even more formidable than he had at first appeared.
most
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And the most formidable threats to reproductive destiny that a human individual faces come from other human individuals.
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A distillation of the riches of the existing law would be a most formidable task.
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To begin with, these forces have created the most formidable barrier to animal movement on earth.
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Has he signed up one of the most formidable Arabs to ride for his expanding pro team?
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Don't you worry, some of the women I've met have proved to be the most formidable of foes.
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She was above all a most formidable female.
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Denbighshire have matched Flintshire's show of strength by naming their most formidable line-up in pursuit of the coveted last-four ticket.
so
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Canny trading played a big part in making the Orioles so formidable .
■ NOUN
barrier
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To begin with, these forces have created the most formidable barrier to animal movement on earth.
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Whether clipped into shape or left natural, barberry is a formidable barrier thanks to its dense foliage and profusion of thorns.
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Other status groups erect less formidable barriers to entry.
challenge
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All this proved a formidable challenge to our sweeper, a delightful Rajasthani lady named Murti.
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The formidable challenge for progressive bishops and theologians who dominated the Second Vatican Council was to formulate a compelling alternative.
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Working out an effective strategy to control it rather than let it control us is a formidable challenge .
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Chess posed a formidable challenge for computer scientists.
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At their most fully developed business information systems provide a formidable challenge to the creativity of archivists and historians alike.
enemy
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Damp is a formidable enemy and too much warmth as great a one, especially where leather bindings are concerned.
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When legislation touches freedom of thought and freedom of speech, such a tendency is a formidable enemy of the free spirit.
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To scoff at or curse the little men was to court disaster, for they made formidable enemies .
force
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Thereafter it evolved rapidly into a formidable force .
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A coalition of the young and old might, from even the most tentative beginnings, grow into a formidable force .
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There he was a formidable force .
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Together they represented a formidable force , but the big question was whether they could work together.
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MacArthur's guard was a formidable force .
obstacle
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When it came to assembling facts and details, the system was a formidable obstacle .
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To be sure, formidable obstacles lie ahead for advocates of a merger.
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Selim had formidable obstacles to overcome, however, in modernising the archaic structure of the Ottoman empire.
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The stairs were a formidable obstacle to son Michael, also, since we lived in a bungalow.
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The Pennines presented the most formidable obstacles of all to the canals, but even they were successfully overcome.
opponent
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The character who can maintain such an idea is a formidable opponent to established order.
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A formidable opponent , I suspect.
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She had no vision of money as an independent power, or a formidable opponent .
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Durable Free State prop Piet Bester has proved a technically formidable opponent .
problem
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It is a formidable problem of optimisation but it is, at least, a potential solution.
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For example, the modelling of the corporate sector, particularly allowing for imperfect competition, is likely to pose formidable problems .
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Any attack on Beaumaris would have been presented with formidable problems .
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Henry Livings faced formidable problems in tackling this new translation of the original Barber.
task
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A distillation of the riches of the existing law would be a most formidable task .
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The new managers obviously had their work cut out for them: learning how to be a manager was a formidable task .
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As with care within the household, the provision of care from outside can be a formidable task .
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How to tantalize our lower-middle-class students was a formidable task .
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Making money and turning out literate graduates are themselves formidable tasks , made none the easier when burdened with idealistic moral baggage.
team
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Mr Palumbo assembled a formidable team of architects and planners.
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Harvard has assembled a formidable team of black academics under the leadership of Henry Louis Gates, a dazzling self-publicist.
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They were organised and formidable teams before its formation.
woman
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Somehow this small but formidable woman made her way through the throng to reach her son.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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Russia still has a formidable nuclear arsenal.
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The team faces some formidable opponents in the next week.
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They face the formidable task of working out a peace plan.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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A coalition of the young and old might, from even the most tentative beginnings, grow into a formidable force.
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But modern publishers knew they needed a very formidable , sure-selling author to make the installment plan succeed.
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Like her husband, she has formidable political skills and impressive recuperative powers.
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Sheltering the village with is impressive yet formidable presence is the north face of the Eiger.
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The resource implications of a meaningful software acquisition programme are formidable .
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Thereafter it evolved rapidly into a formidable force.