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• converse
  converse

  verb (used without object)

  to talk informally with another or others; exchange views, opinions, etc., by talking.
• Converse
  Converse

  noun

  Frederick Shepherd 1871–1940, U.S. composer.

converse

¹ American  

[kuhn-vurs, kon-vurs] / kənˈvɜrs, ˈkɒn vɜrs /

verb (used without object)

• converses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• conversed,
  past participle,  past
• conversing
  present participle

1. to talk informally with another or others; exchange views, opinions, etc., by talking.

   Synonyms:

   jaw, gab, talk, confer, chat

2. Archaic. to maintain a familiar association (usually followed bywith ).

3. Obsolete. to have sexual intercourse (usually followed bywith ).

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noun

1. familiar discourse or talk; conversation.

converse ² American  

[kuhn-vurs, kon-vurs, kon-vurs] / kənˈvɜrs, ˈkɒn vɜrs, ˈkɒn vɜrs /

adjective

1. opposite or contrary in direction, action, sequence, etc.; turned around.

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noun

1. something opposite or contrary.

2. Logic.

   1. a proposition obtained from another proposition by conversion.

   2. the relation between two terms, one of which is related to the other in a given manner, as “younger than” to “older than.”

3. a group of words correlative with a preceding group but having a significant pair of terms interchanged, as “hot in winter but cold in summer” and “cold in winter but hot in summer.”

Converse ³ American  

[kon-vurs] / ˈkɒn vɜrs /

noun

1. Frederick Shepherd 1871–1940, U.S. composer.

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converse ¹ British  

verb

1. to engage in conversation (with)

2. to commune spiritually (with)

3. obsolete

   1. to associate; consort

   2. to have sexual intercourse

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noun

1. conversation (often in the phrase hold converse with )

2. obsolete

   1. fellowship or acquaintance

   2. sexual intercourse

converse ² British  

/ ˈkɒnvɜːs /

adjective

1. (prenominal) reversed; opposite; contrary

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noun

1. something that is opposite or contrary

2. logic

   1. a categorical proposition obtained from another by the transposition of subject and predicate, as no bad man is bald from no bald man is bad

   2. a proposition so derived, possibly by weakening a universal proposition to the corresponding particular, as some socialists are rich from all rich men are socialists

3. logic maths a relation that holds between two relata only when a given relation holds between them in reverse order: thus father of is the converse of son of

Synonym Usage

See speak.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• converser
  noun
• conversely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• conversing
  present
• conversed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• converse
  simple
• converses
  simple
• have conversed
  perfect
• has conversed
  perfect
• am conversing
  progressive
• are conversing
  progressive
• is conversing
  progressive
• have been conversing
  perfect progressive
• has been conversing
  perfect progressive

Past

• conversed
  simple
• had conversed
  perfect
• was conversing
  progressive
• were conversing
  progressive
• had been conversing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will converse
  simple
• will have conversed
  perfect
• will be conversing
  progressive
• will have been conversing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of converse¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English conversen, from Middle French converser, from Latin conversārī “to associate with”; see con-, verse

Origin of converse²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English convers, from Anglo-French or directly from Latin conversus, past participle of convertere “to turn around,” equivalent to con- “with, together” + vert- “to turn” + -tus past participle suffix; cf. convert ¹

Explanation

Converse is a more formal way of saying "carry on a conversation." You could converse with your best friend for hours over lunch, but continue the chit-chat through the afternoon matinee and you might get shushed. Oddly enough, converse was originally a verb meaning “to move about, live or dwell” when it first came into existence in the mid 14th century. But today we only use converse to talk about, well, talking. Quipped the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, “When marrying, one should ask oneself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this woman into your old age?” A good question for marrying men and women!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

converse Converse converses conversed conversing

An American flag flutters above the red brick building, while merchants cluster and converse outside its entrance.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 3, 2026

A Reddit-like pseudo social network for OpenClaw agents called Moltbook, where chatbots converse, has also grabbed headlines and provoked soul-searching over AI.

From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026

However, their children frequently struggled to converse with it.

From BBC ● Mar. 12, 2026

In a converse way, Kay and Down’s reluctance to be so clean, so shiny and so heteronormative with their characters is just as forward-thinking as any media that conjures a conventional picture of equality.

From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2026

Out on the decks, women cook food in clay ovens and converse loudly with their neighbors.

From "First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers" by Loung Ung

We would loiter, mostly, and eat the shredded beef nachos that I still think about to this day while the plastic of our high-top Converse grilled on the scalding asphalt.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026

Prosecutors played soundless footage of him that night, wearing a maroon shirt, dark hat, jeans and Converse shoes, and he was transported back to Utah County and formally booked on 12 September.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

It has made progress in some areas—including its running, wholesale and North American businesses—but has hit hurdles in China, as well as with its Converse brand and sportswear offerings.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026

For its fiscal fourth quarter, which runs through May, Nike expects sales to fall 2% to 4%, weighed down by weaker trends in its Converse segment and difficulties in China, whose economy has been shaky.

From MarketWatch ● Mar. 31, 2026

Sliding into my white Converse, I push my door open then squeeze out into the whitewashed corridor, deciding to go the long way so I can walk past Poe’s room.

From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott

Sometimes she converses with its voice assistant while driving her car.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025

Convinced that Nancy is a cipher for her own lost youth, Myrtle intermittently hallucinates the dead girl’s ghost, and even converses with it.

From New York Times ● Mar. 26, 2024

Rizzs listened to all the games he’s missed on radio or watched on television, and converses knowledgeable about the recent outings of Bryce Miller and Logan Gilbert.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 18, 2023

All the while, Bobby converses with friends who riff on time or men and women or Vietnam or failure, paragraphs and pages of disquisitions that can be funny and moving and dirty and insightful.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 21, 2022

He occasionally converses about the circus with his fellow pub dwellers.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Michl Binderbauer, chief executive of TAE, said in an interview that he has spoken with Donald Trump Jr., who will sit on the company’s nine-person board, but hasn’t conversed with the president.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

The four last defendants - including one woman - are people with whom Anzorov conversed on Snapchat and Twitter and who allegedly offered him encouragement.

From BBC ● Nov. 4, 2024

Instead she toured the clinic and conversed with healthcare providers and patients who were interested in speaking with her.

From Salon ● Mar. 14, 2024

He didn’t recognize them as from Abalu, his own community, but he heard the language in which they conversed and knew they were from neighboring creek clans, anywhere from Kolo to Oloibiri.

From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2023

While waiting for the second execution, a reporter and a guard conversed.

From "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

Before her departure, Keyser appeared in the first 20 minutes of Thursday's episode, conversing with one of the male contestants before appearing briefly in two further non-speaking scenes.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

The chatbot, capable of conversing in natural language, captivated global audiences and has since developed advanced coding, voice interaction and image generation capabilities.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 10, 2026

The evening had been busy for Juan too, she recalled, including cooking tacos for the children, mopping the kitchen and reading and conversing with Kevin.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026

He came to see innovation arising not from like-minded or similarly trained people conversing with each other, but from a friction of ideas and approaches.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 28, 2026

They were conversing in Arabic, and the boy was proud of himself for being able to do so.

From "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho