conference
/ˈkɒn.f(ə.)ɹəns/US/ˈkɑn.f(ə.)ɹəns/
conference noun: the act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views.
Noun (1)
conference (plural conferences)
- The act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views.
- Nor with such free and friendly conference / As he hath used of old.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- Mr. Wiley, a lawyer of some ability, was sitting in his office one day, when an elderly gentleman came in and asked to have a few words of conference with him.1850, T. S. Arthur, “Seed Time and Harvest”, in Sketches of Life and Character, Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 129
- The act of comparing two or more things together; comparison.
- helps and furtherances which […] the mutual conference of all men's collections and observations may afford[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
- A multilateral diplomatic negotiation.
- A formal event where scientists or other scholars present their research results in speeches, workshops, posters or by other means.
- An event organized by a for-profit or non-profit organization to discuss a pressing issue, such as a new product, market trend or government regulation, with a range of speakers.
- A group of sports teams that play each other on a regular basis.
- A constituent tournament of a sports league in a given season.
- A stated meeting of preachers and others, invested with authority to take cognizance of ecclesiastical matters.
- A voluntary association of Congregational churches of a district; the district in which such churches are.
- A talk or lecture, (Catholicism) especially when given as part of a retreat.
- “[…]But I do know of a man who is an expert on the topic. In fact, he gave a conference here in our church not very long ago.[…]”1996, Kenneth R. Guindon, The King's Highway, Ignatius Press, →ISBN, page 114
- She gave a conference each evening during the retreat while Fr Dubas gave two talks during the day.2000, Phil Kilroy, Madeleine Sophie Barat, 1779-1865: A Life, Paulist Press, →ISBN, page 109
Verb
conference (third-person singular simple present conferences, present participle conferencing, simple past and past participle conferenced)
- To assess (a student) by one-on-one conversation, rather than an examination.
- The students who were conferenced on paper 1 will get a written response to paper 2, and those who received a written response to paper 1 will be conferenced on paper 2.2009, Jennifer Berne, The Writing-Rich High School Classroom
Noun (2) capitalized: Conference
Conference (plural Conferences)
conference meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
conference in Hindi
- a meeting of people
- सम्मेलन sammelan, संगोष्ठी saṅgoṣṭhī
conference in Tamil
- a meeting of people
- மாநாடு mānāṭu
conference in Marathi
- conference
- सभा sabhā
conference in Urdu
- a meeting of people
- مُذاکَرَہ muzākara, کانْفَرِنْس kānfarins
More languagesFewer languages
- conference in Bengali
- সম্মেলন, সম্মিলন, পরামর্শসভা, সলা
- conference in Telugu
- సంవాదము saṁvādamu, సమావేశం samāvēśaṁ
- conference in Malayalam
- സമ്മേളനം sammēḷanaṁ
- conference in Kannada
- ಮಾತುಕತೆ, ಸಮ್ಮೇಳನ, ಸಮಾವೇಶ, ಅಧಿವೇಶನ
- conference in Punjabi
- ਸੰਮੇਲਨ, ਕਾਨਫਰੰਸ, ਕਾਨਫ਼ਰੰਸ
- conference in Gujarati
- સંમેલન, પરિષદ
- conference in Odia
- ସମ୍ମିଳନୀ
- conference in Nepali
- सम्मेलन, कन्फ्रेन्सिङ
- conference in Pashto
- کنفرانس kanfarãns
- conference in Tagalog
- atba
- conference in Arabic
- مُؤْتَمَر muʔtamar
- conference in Malay
- persidangan
- conference in Indonesian
- konferensi
- conference in Thai
- การประชุม gaan-bprà-chum
- conference in Vietnamese
- hội nghị
- conference in Myanmar
- ကွန်ဖရင့် kwanhpa.rang., ညီလာခံ nyilahkam, အစည်းအဝေး a.cany:a.we:
Examples of conference in a sentence
- The conference itself went very well. The party afterwards, however, was a disaster.
- Chat turned to whisper when the boss entered the conference room.
- The team with the best regular season record receives the top seed in the conference tournament.
Forms of conference
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | conferences |
| plural | Conferences |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | conferences |
| present participle | conferencing |
| past participle | conferenced |
| past | conferenced |
Origin of conference
From Middle French conférence, from Medieval Latin cōnferentia, from Latin cōnferēns, omitting several steps, from con- + ferō. Compare parallel Russian собра́ние (sobránije), Russian сбо́рище (sbórišče), akin to с- (s-), со- (so-) + брать (bratʹ), ultimately from the same Indo-European prefix and root. Also compare congress, convention.
After the National British Pear Conference in London in 1885, at which this cultivar won the first prize.
Words formed from conference
- audioconference
- conference bike
- conference call
- conferencee
- conference-goer
- conferencegoer
- conference interpreter
- conference interpreting
- conferencelike
- conference matrix
- conferencer
- conference room
- conference table
- conferencewide
- consensus conference
- cyberconference
- interconference
- intraconference
- judicial conference
- junk conference
- megaconference
- multiconference
- news conference
- nonconference
- preconference
- predatory conference
- press conference
- science by press conference
- Scoutmaster conference
- spamference
- status conference
- subconference
- superconference
- teleconference
- telephone conference
- traffic conference area
- unconference
- videoconference
- video conference
- web conference
Phrases with conference
Questions about conference
- What does conference mean?
- Conference means the act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views.
- What is conference in Hindi?
- Conference in Hindi is सम्मेलन (sammelan), संगोष्ठी (saṅgoṣṭhī). See Conference meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is conference?
- Conference can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce conference?
- Conference is pronounced /ˈkɒn.f(ə.)ɹəns/ (UK).
- What is the plural of conference?
- The plural of conference is conferences.
Words near conference in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: conference (page history and authors); Conference (page history and authors); सभा (Marathi) (page history and authors); conference (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); సంవాదము (Telugu) (page history and authors); conference (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); conference (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); conference (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); conference (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); conference (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-conference.wav.
Cite this entry: “conference.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/conference. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.