Convergence

How to spell convergence

11 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce convergence

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does convergence mean?

1. nounThe process of separate things, lines, or trends moving toward and meeting at a common point.

Convergence in a sentence

• The merger created a remarkable convergence of two very different company cultures.

• Economists noted a slow convergence of interest rates across the region.

Where does convergence come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb vergere, which literally meant 'to bend', 'to turn', or 'to incline towards' something. Adding the prefix con-, meaning 'together', produced the Late Latin convergere, the sense of separate things bending or inclining toward a single point. Scholars revived the idea in the seventeenth century, when scientists writing in Latin used convergens to describe rays of light bending toward a common focus, and English took the noun convergence directly from that learned usage. From optics the word spread outward to mathematics, biology, and everyday speech, always carrying the core picture of distinct lines or trends meeting. The same vergere root sits inside the everyday words 'verge' and 'diverge', and noticing that family helps explain the spelling: it is con + verg, then the noun ending -ence rather than the often-confused -ance.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• verg (from vergere: to bend, turn, incline)
• -ence (noun-forming suffix)