Conversation

How to spell conversation

12 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce conversation

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conversation mean?

1. nounAn informal exchange of spoken words between two or more people.

Conversation in a sentence

• The two managers had a long conversation about next year's budget.

• She struck up a friendly conversation with the passenger beside her.

Where does conversation come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin conversari, which literally meant 'to keep turning oneself about' or 'to live and move among others', built from the prefix con- meaning 'together' and the verb vertere meaning 'to turn'. From that came the Latin noun conversatio, which in its earliest use described the way a person conducted their life and the company they kept, not merely talk. English took the word through Old French conversation in the 1300s, and for centuries it still carried that broader sense of one's manner of living and social dealings. Only from around the 1500s did the modern meaning of spoken exchange between people settle in and push the older sense aside. The buried vert root still surfaces in close relatives such as 'convert', 'reverse', and 'versatile', all of which turn on the idea of turning.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• vers (from vertere: to turn)
• -ation (noun of action)