Conversation

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: con=ver=sa=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

Conversation, 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.].

•  General course of conduct; behavior.  [1913 Webster]

  "Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel."  [1913 Webster]
•  Familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; close acquaintance.  Dryden.  [1913 Webster]

  "I set down, out of long experience in business and much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to this business."  [1913 Webster]
•  Commerce; intercourse; traffic.  [1913 Webster]

  "All traffic and mutual conversation."  [1913 Webster]
•  Colloquial discourse; oral interchange of sentiments and observations; informal dialogue.  [1913 Webster]

  "The influence exercised by his [Johnson's] conversation was altogether without a parallel."  [1913 Webster]
•  Sexual intercourse; as, criminal conversation.

Syn. -- Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity; discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Conversation, n.
1 the informal exchange of ideas by spoken words.
2 an instance of this.

Idiom

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))

DEVIL 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.

THESAURUS

Conversation

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

ROGET THESAURUS

Conversation

Speech

N speech, faculty of speech, locution, talk, parlance, verbal intercourse, prolation, oral communication, word of mouth, parole, palaver, prattle, effusion, oration, recitation, delivery, say, speech, lecture, harangue, sermon, tirade, formal speech, peroration, speechifying, soliloquy, allocution, conversation, salutatory : screed: valedictory, oratory, elocution, eloquence, rhetoric, declamation, grandiloquence, multiloquence, burst of eloquence, facundity, flow of words, command of words, command of language, copia verborum, power of speech, gift of the gab, usus loquendi, speaker, spokesman, prolocutor, interlocutor, mouthpiece, Hermes, orator, oratrix, oratress, Demosthenes, Cicero, rhetorician, stump orator, platform orator, speechmaker, patterer, improvisatore, speaking, spoken, oral, lingual, phonetic, not written, unwritten, outspoken, eloquent, elocutionary, oratorical, rhetorical, declamatory, grandiloquent, talkative, Ciceronian, nuncupative, Tullian, orally, by word of mouth, viva voce, from the lips of, quoth he, said he, action is eloquence, pour the full tide of eloquence along, she speaks poignards and every word stabs, speech is but broken light upon the depth of the u, to try thy eloquence now 'tis time.

Conversation

N conversation, interlocution, collocution, colloquy, converse, confabulation, talk, discourse, verbal intercourse, oral communication, commerce, dialogue, duologue, trialogue, causerie, chat, chitchat, small talk, table talk, teatable talk, town talk, village talk, idle talk, tattle, gossip, tittle-tattle, babble, babblement, tripotage, cackle, prittle-prattle, cancan, on dit, talk of the town, talk of the village, conference, parley, interview, audience, pourparler, tete-a-tete, reception, conversazione, congress, powwow, hall of audience, durbar, palaver, debate, logomachy, war of words, gossip, tattler, Paul Pry, tabby, chatterer, interlocutor, conversationist, dialogist, the feast of reason and the flow of soul, mollia tempora fandi, conversing, interlocutory, conversational, conversable, discursive, discoursive, chatty, colloquial, with thee conversing I forget all time.