From Middle English conformen, borrowed from Old French conformer, from Latin conformāre.

• (RP) IPA: /kənˈfɔːm/
• (America) IPA: /kənˈfɔɹm/

conform (conforms, present participle conforming; simple past and past participle conformed)

1. (transitive, intransitive) To adapt to something by more closely matching it, especially something normative.
   • c. 1710, “Vanbrugh's House”, in The Poems of Jonathan Swift, 1910 edition, Jonathan Swift:

     There is a worm by Phoebus bred,
     By leaves of mulberry is fed,
     Which unprovided where to dwell,
     Conforms itself to weave a cell.

   • 1836, Ralph Waldo Emerson, chapter 6, in Nature:

     The sensual man conforms thoughts to things; the poet conforms things to his thoughts.

   1. (transitive, intransitive, often followed by to) To change to more closely match typical characteristics or behavior.
      • 1822, [Walter Scott], chapter I, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC ↗, pages 5–6 ↗:

        [H]e had a dispensation for conforming in outward observances to the Protestant faith.

      • 1839, Robert FitzRoy, Phillip Parker King, Charles Darwin, chapter IV, in Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty’s Ships Adventure and Beagle, between the Years 1826 and 1836, […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC ↗:

        [B]y conforming to the dress and habits of the Gauchos, he has obtained an unbounded popularity in the country.

2. (intransitive, of things or procedures) To be as required or recommended by a specification, regulation, or policy.
   • 1919, Hildegard G. Frey, chapter 11, in The Camp Fire Girls Do Their Bit:

     In height and breadth it conformed to the prescribed measurements laid down by the rules of the contest.

• (to act in accordance with expectations) acquiesce, comply, go along to get along, knuckle under, submit; see also Thesaurus:conform

• conformance
• conformation
• conformer
• conformism
• conformist
• conformity

• French: s'aligner
• German: entsprechen, passen
• Russian: соотве́тствовать

• French: se conformer (à)
• German: entsprechen, gerecht werden, genügen, erfüllen
• Italian: essere conforme
• Portuguese: conformar-se, estar em conformidade com
• Russian: согласова́ться

• German: anpassen