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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

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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

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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

After initial training, the model is like a math student who has read every math textbook ever written but has never been taught to converse about math or answer questions in a natural way.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 9, 2026

"They don't have those natural moments where they can just make sense of something that's happened to them, converse with each other, put it down and move onto the next job," she said.

From BBC ● Jul. 29, 2026

The rhythm section of bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Watts locks in, while Richards and Wood converse with their guitars as only they can.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 10, 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

Me and Charlie Parr sat close enough to converse on the back row.

From "The Teacher’s Funeral" by Richard Peck

In an apology, first issued on Friday, Converse said the photo had been removed from its social media channels and it was working to remove it elsewhere.

From BBC ● Sep. 19, 2026

“We’re sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong,” Converse said in a statement to Footwear News on Friday.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026

The sneaker giant will move some of the Converse footwear manufacturing resources closer to factory partners and it will reorganize how its materials supply chain operates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 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

He is wearing his typical band uniform of a T-shirt, skinny pegged pants, and Converse, with Gramps’s plaid scarf draped over his shoulders.

From "If I Stay" by Gayle Forman

But Domingo, who converses with Kościuszko in English, is also a bit of an anachronism.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026

Instead of merely nodding his head, Samuel asks questions and converses with Romy.

From Salon ● Dec. 23, 2024

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

She converses with the corpse of her father, apparently a chancellor before her, rotting away in a glass coffin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2024

Their waiter stops at their table and converses briefly with Widget, paying no notice to the man in the grey suit.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Dong Jun, and Hegseth both attended the Xi-Trump summit in Beijing and conversed at a state banquet.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026

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

The actor conversed with Evans in anticipation of his upcoming Apple TV+ drama series “Bad Monkey.”

From Salon ● Aug. 7, 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

That evening in New York, we ate, drank, and conversed in the candlelight, reveling in the feeling, however illusory, that we’d stolen away.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

During the pandemic, some employees would spent their lunch breaks conversing with the chatbots for fun, Zinger said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

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

Tray tables had one purpose: to be unfolded before a TV set so that instead of conversing with others around a dining-room table, people could eat while mutely staring at a TV screen.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026

“Sentimental Value’s” final shot, which similarly shows Nora and Gustav conversing, neatly tied together the movie’s themes of family, fiction and forgiveness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 17, 2026

Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian.

From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling

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