discourse
Americannoun
-
discourses
plural
-
communication of thought by words; talk; conversation.
earnest and intelligent discourse.
- Synonyms:
- parley, chat, dialogue, colloquy, discussion
-
a formal discussion of a subject in speech or writing, as a dissertation, treatise, sermon, etc.
-
Linguistics. any unit of connected speech or writing longer than a sentence.
verb (used without object)
-
discourses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
discoursed,
past participle, past
-
discoursing
present participle
-
to communicate thoughts orally; talk; converse.
-
to treat of a subject formally in speech or writing.
verb (used with object)
-
discourses,
present (3rd person singular)
-
discoursed,
past participle, past
-
discoursing
present participle
noun
-
verbal communication; talk; conversation
-
a formal treatment of a subject in speech or writing, such as a sermon or dissertation
-
a unit of text used by linguists for the analysis of linguistic phenomena that range over more than one sentence
-
archaic the ability to reason or the reasoning process
verb
-
(intr; often foll by on or upon) to speak or write (about) formally and extensively
-
(intr) to hold a discussion
-
archaic (tr) to give forth (music)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
discoursesimple
-
discoursessimple
-
have discoursedperfect
-
has discoursedperfect
-
am discoursingprogressive
-
are discoursingprogressive
-
is discoursingprogressive
-
have been discoursingperfect progressive
-
has been discoursingperfect progressive
Past
-
discoursedsimple
-
had discoursedperfect
-
was discoursingprogressive
-
were discoursingprogressive
-
had been discoursingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of discourse
First recorded in 1325–75; Middle English discours, from Medieval Latin discursus (spelling by influence of Middle English cours “course”), Late Latin: “conversation,” Latin: “a run back and forth,” noun use of past participle of discurrere “to run about,” from dis- dis- 1 + currere “to run”
Explanation
If you use the word discourse, you are describing a formal and intense discussion or debate. The noun discourse comes from the Latin discursus to mean "an argument." But luckily, that kind of argument does not mean people fighting or coming to blows. The argument in discourse refers to an exchange of ideas — sometimes heated — that often follows a kind of order and give-and-take between the participants. It's the kind of argument and discussion that teachers love, so discourse away!
Vocabulary lists containing discourse
Othello
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Rhetoric
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Grade 11, List 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"It is surprising that the discourse from many developing AI is so filled with doom," he writes.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
Her impact on the public discourse around medical advice was pretty uniformly terrible.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
“There is a sense of inevitability about it, and I think that’s infected perhaps a lot of the political discourse in California,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 12, 2026
Sarah Ravin, a clinical psychologist in Coral Gables, Fla., told me the discourse is somewhat reminiscent of the criticism that dogged some young celebrities in the 2000s, including Mary-Kate Olsen and Nicole Richie.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 7, 2026
When the direwolf howled again, Tyrion shut the heavy leather-bound cover on the book he was reading, a hundred-year-old discourse on the changing of the seasons by a long-dead maester.
From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin
Mr. Howard has come to biography writing after a distinguished career in publishing at Doubleday Books, and he discourses with knowledge and zeal about Cowley’s second act as a revivalist and gatekeeper.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 7, 2025
"I've seen different discourses online where people are really upset that she's doing movies," the 23-year-old from Luton says.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2025
Or, instead, could former President Trump’s extended discourses demonstrate his genius — an ability, as he says, to “weave” disparate stories into a beautiful tapestry?
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 25, 2024
As the self-promoting overseer of X, he holds outsize influence over the countries whose political and electoral discourses still—for persistent lack of better alternatives—center on the text-based platform once known to them as Twitter.
From Slate ● Aug. 14, 2024
He could talk about such subjects as the French Revolution and the Siberian gulags, the philosophy of Nietzsche, and the discourses of Disraeli.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
On Wednesday, Ono discoursed on group theory and theorems of Lagrange and Fermat as students watched him sketch, with a sure and rapid hand, the symbols of high-level math.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 27, 2020
Our guide, young but practiced in the art of distracting cold tourists, poured hot berry juice and discoursed on Arctic matters.
From The New Yorker ● Apr. 22, 2019
In a long career, 50 years and counting, Mr. Stoppard, 81, has written plays, radio plays and screenplays that have discoursed on everything from Dadaism to analytic philosophy to particle physics to early Pink Floyd.
From New York Times ● Oct. 16, 2018
According to the film historian Kevin Brownlow, the crew sometimes took the film out of the camera and continued to crank as Tree discoursed, so as not to waste precious feet of celluloid.
From Slate ● Dec. 4, 2015
He showed them medals and pictures, he discoursed of music and architecture—two of his most pronounced tastes—and he nourished every princely prejudice which a wise tutor would have striven to eradicate.
From Caricature and Other Comic Art in all Times and many Lands. by James Parton
Deploying broad historical knowledge and a keen comparative eye, he does an enormous amount of discoursing around the premise that “the clothes we wear today are anachronistic, irrational and harmful.”
From The New Yorker ● Jul. 11, 2019
His image should be what politicians and elected officials envision before they begin discoursing about what can we do, what must we do, to ensure this does not happen again.
From Washington Times ● Nov. 19, 2018
"That's like a field trip to heaven," says Mara, who seconds earlier was discoursing on the debilitating effects of screen life.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2018
Directed by Matt Bassett, “The Typographer’s Dream” features three eccentric experts discoursing on the wonders, and occasionally the frustrations, of their chosen disciplines.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 14, 2015
The old warrior, with his shining bald head and huge hands, looked as if he would prefer battle to discoursing in council.
From "The Black Cauldron" by Lloyd Alexander
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
