Symposium

How to spell symposium

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce symposium

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does symposium mean?

1. nounA formal meeting or conference at which experts discuss a particular subject.

Symposium in a sentence

• The university hosted a two-day symposium on renewable energy.

• She presented her research findings at the international symposium.

Where does symposium come from?

Language of origin: Greek

The word comes from the Greek symposion, which literally meant 'a drinking together'. It was built from syn, meaning 'together', and posis, meaning 'a drink', a relative of the verb pinein, 'to drink'. In ancient Greece a symposion was a convivial gathering where men reclined to drink wine and hold lively, often philosophical, conversation; Plato famously used the setting for his dialogue of the same name. Latin borrowed the word as symposium, keeping the -ium ending that marked it as an occasion. English adopted it in the seventeenth century, and over time the boozy origins faded so that today it usually means a serious academic conference or a collection of essays on one theme. The hidden 'drink' inside pos is a useful memory hook, and the Latin -ium ending explains why the plural can be either symposiums or the classical symposia.

How the word is built

• sym- (together, from Greek syn)
• pos (drinking, from posis)
• -ium (noun suffix denoting an event or place)