Adjacent Words

Conversation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONVERSATION, n.
1. General course of manners; behavior; deportment; especially as it respects morals.
Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel. Philippians 1.
Be ye holy in all manner of conversation. 1 Peter 1.
2. A keeping company; familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; commerce in social life. Knowledge of men and manners is best acquired by conversation with the best company.
3. Intimate and familiar acquaintance; as a conversation with books, or other object.
4. Familiar discourse; general intercourse of sentiments; chat; unrestrained talk; opposed to a formal conference.
What I mentioned in conversation was not a new thought.
[This is now the most general use of the word.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English conversacioun, from Anglo-French conversacion, from Latin conversation-, conversatio, from conversari to associate with, frequentative of convertere to turn around Date: 14th century 1. obsolete conduct, behavior 2. a. (1) oral exchange of sentiments, observations, opinions, or ideas (2) an instance of such exchange ; talk <a quiet conversation> b. an informal discussion of an issue by representatives of governments, institutions, or groups c. an exchange similar to conversation • conversational adjective • conversationally adverb

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 the informal exchange of ideas by spoken words. 2 an instance of this. Phrases and idioms: conversation piece 1 a small genre painting of a group of figures. 2 a thing that serves as a topic of conversation because of its unusualness etc. conversation stopper colloq. an unexpected remark, esp. one that cannot readily be answered. Etymology: ME f. OF f. L conversatio -onis (as CONVERSE(1))

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Conversation Con`ver*sa"tion, n. [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.'' --Dryden. I set down, out of long experience in business and much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to this business. --Bacon. 3. Commerce; intercourse; traffic. [Obs.] All traffic and mutual conversation. --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. --Macaulay. 5. Sexual intercourse; as, criminal conversation. Syn: Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity; discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat. Usage: 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.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(conversations) Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English. 1. If you have a conversation with someone, you talk with them, usually in an informal situation. He's a talkative guy, and I struck up a conversation with him... I waited for her to finish a telephone conversation. N-COUNT 2. If you say that people are in conversation, you mean that they are talking together. When I arrived I found her in conversation with Mrs Williams. PHRASE: v-link PHR 3. If you make conversation, you talk to someone in order to be polite and not because you really want to. He had been trying to make conversation. PHRASE: V inflects

Easton's Bible Dictionary

generally the goings out and in of social intercourse (Eph. 2:3; 4:22; R.V., "manner of life"); one's deportment or course of life. This word is never used in Scripture in the sense of verbal communication from one to another (Ps. 50:23; Heb. 13:5). In Phil. 1:27 and 3:20, a different Greek word is used. It there means one's relations to a community as a citizen, i.e., citizenship.

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kon-ver-sa'-shun (anastrophe, homilia): This word is another illustration of the changes which time makes in a living language. The modern sense of the term is mutual talk, colloquy, but in the King James Version it never means that, but always behavior, conduct. This broader meaning, at a time not much later than the date of the King James Version, began to yield to the special, limited one of today, perhaps, as has been suggested, because speech forms so large a part of conduct. The New Testament words for "converse" in the modern sense are homileo (Lu 24:14,15; Ac 20:11) and sunomileo (Ac 10:27).

(1) In the Old Testament the word used to indicate conduct is derekh, "way" the course one travels (the King James Version Ps 37:14; margin 50:23). It is the common Hebrew idea of conduct, possibly due, as Hatch thinks, to the fact that in Syria intercourse between village and village was so much on foot, with difficulty on stony tracks over the hills, and this is reflected in the metaphor.

(2) In the New Testament the idea of deportment is once rendered by tropos, "Let your conversation be without covetousness" (Heb 13:5 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "be ye free from the love of money"; the Revised Version, margin "let your turn of mind be free"). But the usual Greek word is anastrophe, "a turning up and down," possibly due to the fact, as Hatch again avers, that life in the bustling streets of Athens and Rome gave rise to the conception of life as quick motion to and fro. "Ye have heard of my conversation" (Ga 1:13 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "manner of life"). So also Eph 4:22; 1Ti 4:1; Heb 13:7; "Let him show out of a good conversation" (Jas 3:13 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "by his good life"); "vexed with the filthy conversation" (2Pe 2:7 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "lascivious life"); "holy conversation" (2Pe 3:11 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "holy living"); "Our conversation is in heaven" (Php 3:20 the King James Version; the Revised Version (British and American) "citizenship" (which see)). See also in the Apocrypha (Tobit 4:14; 2 Macc 5:8).

The translations in the Revisions put a wholesome emphasis upon conduct, and eliminate the danger of much misunderstanding. See further Hatch, Essays in Biblical Greek.

G. H. Trever

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Converse, talk, colloquy, parley, conference, dialogue, chat, confabulation, familiar discourse.

Moby Thesaurus

ESP, accents, answer, chat, chatter, collegiality, colloquy, comment, commerce, communication, communion, community, confabulation, congress, connection, contact, converse, correspondence, dealing, dealings, debate, deliberation, dialogue, discourse, discussion, elocution, exchange, fellowship, gab, gossip, information, interaction, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunion, intercourse, interplay, language, linguistic intercourse, message, observation, oral communication, palaver, parley, parole, prattle, rapping, remark, repartee, reply, response, social activity, social intercourse, social relations, speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, talk, talking, telepathy, touch, traffic, truck, two-way communication, ventilation, words, yakkety-yak, yakking