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It seems that in response to questions regarding the differences between 漢語
and their 和語 equivalents, it is often explained that the 漢語 is "more formal"
than the 和語. As a result, I get the feeling that this is a trend.

One example of this, which made me think of this question, is [What is the
difference between [友達]{とも・だち} and
[友人]{ゆう・じん}?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/18312/384).

And so, the originally question was this: **Is this feeling of mine correct?
And is it always that way, or are there some instances where the 和語 is clearly
more formal?**

Upon reading some comments, however, I realize that I am not entirely sure
what even _I_ mean by "formal" in the above questions.  
Is there some consistent way in which we can understand "formal" as it is used
in responding to these types of questions? Or are people using it to refer to
a bunch of different concepts?
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formality wago-and-kango
Are 漢語 always more formal than 和語？
I'll leave any definitive answers to our native speakers, but rather than
formal–informal I've started to think that maybe poetic–prosaic might be a
more apt duality. (And formality usually implies little poeticality.)

One other example where both readings are common is 竹林 with チクリン being
"prosaic" and たけばやし being poetic.
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I think there's definitely lots of truth in that tendency. 漢語 was essentially
the Latin of Japan for a long time; i.e the language of the elites. In fact,
Chinese poetry is still compulsory in Japanese education, a bit like Latin I
guess.

Because of this history, 漢語 is associated with art, science, government etc.
and is thus generally more formal.
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2014-08-24T19:56:02.283
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While 漢語 is more formal/technical/academic than the 和語 equivalent in most
cases, there are a few exceptions.

  * 一番 (kango) is less formal/academic than 最も (wago).
  * 喧嘩 (kango) is less formal than 争い (wago).
  * 本当に (kango) is less formal/polite than 誠に (wago) in greetings.

I think the number of such exceptions is very small. I understand these may
not be good examples because they don't share even a single kanji. Anyway,
just because a word is in on-yomi doesn't mean it's always more formal.
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