The phrase "a mere form" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used to describe something that is superficial or lacking in substance, often implying that it is only a formal or technical aspect without deeper significance.
Example: "The application process felt like a mere formality, as the decision had already been made."
Alternatives: "a simple formality" or "just a formality".
Some people have suggested the Occupy Wall Street protest is a mere form of street theater, that the protesters have a myriad of grievances with no particular agenda.
Online games go far beyond a mere form of passive entertainment.
Subsequently it has no more claim to reality than spatiality, for it too simply implicates a mere form of perception.
The two basic and mutually exclusive positions maintained, on the one hand, as Schlegel portrays them, that human language must have originated as a transcription, representation or imitation of external objects; and on the other, that in its origin language must have been purely sensual, i.e. a mere form of expression of emotions through sounds.
What is this thing called "love" -- It is a mere form of chemical madness, hormones running furiously amok; Is it inexorable bonds formed between like-minded, socio-economically compatible individuals; Or is it something more -- a cosmic, near-divine affection that nourishes two entwined souls?
Sometimes mere form serves as a springboard for an encounter.
Yet Peter Abrahams's strongest novels seem to suggest, despite their allegiance to genre, a fascination with something beyond mere form.
In these cases, initial impressions of the mere "form" of a material object generate approbation (T, 364).
His big idea is that drawing, far from being a mere supplementary form of communication, is actually an intrinsic aspect of human communication and cognition.The kicker, and this is what makes Cohn's theory unique, is that visual languages obey "similar principles of cognition" to those that we already know govern our understandings of verbal and sign languages.
This consideration of the mere form alone, the object simply as an object of choice, cannot contain any prohibition of use for an object, for any such prohibition would be freedom limiting itself for no reason.
We need more substance in pennies for the artists rather than mere form adjustments".
