conversation

Noun
US[kon-ver-sey-shuhn]/ˌkɑnvɚˈseɪʃən/4 syllables

Open English WordNet

Noun (1)conversations

  1. the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.Type of speech, speech communicationKinds talk, exchange, tete-a-tete, chat, crossfire, nothings, commerce, phatic speech, telephone conversation, rap +5 more
Word of the day · Sep 29About this word
haphazardadjective

What does it mean? Question 1 of today’s quiz

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Translations

Noun talk between people, dialogue

Portuguese
conversação
Turkish
sohbet
Russian
разгово́р razgovór
Arabic
مُحَادَثَة muḥādaṯa
Chinese
会话 huìhuà
Japanese
会話 kaiwa
30 more languages
Polish
rozmowa
Swedish
samtal
Greek
συζήτηση syzítisi
Korean
대화 daehwa
Indonesian
percakapan
Hungarian
beszélgetés
Portuguese (PT)
conversação
Chinese (Trad.)
會話 huìhuà
Albanian
bisedë
Danish
samtale
Esperanto
konversacio
Estonian
vestlus
Finnish
keskustelu
Georgian
საუბარი saubari
Hebrew
שִׂיחָה sikhá
Icelandic
samtal
Kurdish
suhbet
Latvian
saruna
Lithuanian
pokalbis
Norwegian
samtale
Romanian
conversație
Scottish Gaelic
còmhradh
Serbo-Croatian
razgovor
Slovenian
pogovor
Welsh
sgwrs
Yiddish
געשפּרעך geshprekh

The main translation for each meaning, from the langtolang.com multilingual dictionary. Each word links to its full entry there.

Webster's Dictionary (1913)

Con′ver·sa′tion noun

Origin: OE. conversacio (in senses 1 & 2), OF. conversacion, F. conversation, fr. L. conversatio frequent abode in a place, intercourse, LL. also, manner of life.

1. General course of conduct; behavior. archaic

Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel.— Philip. i. 27.

2. Familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; close acquaintance. “Conversation with the best company.” John Dryden

I set down, out of long experience in business and much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to this business.— Francis, Baron Verulam Bacon

3. Commerce; intercourse; traffic. obsolete

All traffic and mutual conversation.— Richard Hakluyt

4. Colloquial discourse; oral interchange of sentiments and observations; informal dialogue.

The influence exercised by his [Johnson's] conversation was altogether without a parallel.— Thomas Babington Macaulay

5. Sexual intercourse; as, criminal conversation.

Synonyms: Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity; discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat. — Conversation, Talk. There is a looser sense of these words, in which they are synonymous; there is a stricter sense, in which they differ. Talk is usually broken, familiar, and versatile. Conversation is more continuous and sustained, and turns ordinarily upon topics or higher interest. Children talk to their parents or to their companions; men converse together in mixed assemblies. Dr. Johnson once remarked, of an evening spent in society, that there had been a great deal of talk, but no conversation.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913), from GCIDE 0.54

The Devil's Dictionary

CONVERSATION, n. A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
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