conference
Americannoun
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conferences
plural
-
a meeting for consultation or discussion.
a conference between a student and his adviser.
- Synonyms:
- colloquium, parley
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the act of conferring or consulting together; consultation, especially on an important or serious matter.
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Government. a meeting, as of various committees, to settle disagreements between the two branches of the legislature.
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an association of athletic teams; league.
an intercollegiate conference.
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Ecclesiastical.
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an official assembly of clergy or of clergy and laity, customary in many Christian denominations.
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a group of churches whose representatives regularly meet in such an assembly.
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verb (used without object)
noun
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a meeting for consultation, exchange of information, or discussion, esp one with a formal agenda
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a formal meeting of two or more states, political groups, etc, esp to discuss differences or formulate common policy
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an assembly of the clergy or of clergy and laity of any of certain Protestant Christian Churches acting as representatives of their denomination
the Methodist conference
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sport a league or division of clubs or teams
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rare an act of bestowal
Synonym Usage
See convention.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of conference
From the Medieval Latin word conferentia, dating back to 1530–40. See confer, -ence
Explanation
A conference is a formal get-together where people talk (or "confer") about a chosen topic, like when your office holds a conference to talk about the problem of snoring during meetings. A conference can also be a public meeting arranged for discussion, such as a press conference or a national conference for a particular group. For example, you may no longer have much interest in 18th-century coins, but you still attend the annual conference for coin collectors because it is always held at a hotel in Aruba. A conference can also refer to a sports league, such as for baseball or football.
Vocabulary lists containing conference
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
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"The Tragedy of Hamlet," Vocabulary from Act 3
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"The American Pageant," Vocabulary from Chapters 30-32
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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:
Badenoch goes into the conference with her own position secure in the party.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
As the first section of the media conference, which is allowed to be broadcast live, was ending, the mood soured.
From BBC ● Oct. 3, 2026
Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of Paramount co-controlling shareholder RedBird Capital Partners, said at a Bloomberg conference this week that the majority of cost savings won’t come from layoffs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 3, 2026
Wang sports a mullet reminiscent of the podcaster Theo Von—whose show he has appeared on—and wore a camouflage thrift-store T-shirt and Crocs for a recent onstage appearance at the company’s annual developer conference.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026
Talks resumed the next morning in a conference room at the Soviet embassy.
From "Fallout: Spies, Superbombs, and the Ultimate Cold War Showdown" by Steve Sheinkin
They’ve refined their arguments in Bay Area group houses, and traded predictions at freewheeling conferences in Berkeley and the Bahamas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 27, 2026
A relentless campaigner, he maintains a near-constant presence on pro-government television channels, embracing locals in tiny rural villages and chastising his critics during lengthy news conferences.
From Barron's ● Sep. 27, 2026
The Dodgers do not hold splashy news conferences to introduce closer candidates.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 27, 2026
Between the two news conferences, Klopp looked like the busiest national team boss on the planet, making countless visits to league games and training facilities.
From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026
He’s home before me, because he’s had early dismissals all week for parent-teacher conferences.
From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day
He whispered to one of his attorneys while his lead lawyers, Karen Friedman Agnifilo and Marc Agnifilo, conferenced with the judge and prosecutors at the front of the courtroom.
From BBC ● May 18, 2026
Which gets us to that footnote, in which Justice Alito writes, “That constitutional question was argued and conferenced nearly seven months ago.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 5, 2026
On Dec. 9, the court conferenced and took a split vote.
From New York Times ● Feb. 15, 2023
Buck’s petition is expected to be conferenced by the U.S.
From Time ● Apr. 20, 2016
I have already conferenced with Rae, and now Ethan’s conference is going over.
From "The Adoration of Jenna Fox" by Mary E. Pearson
You’ll have no trouble streaming 4K content, downloading large files or video conferencing on these connections.
From Salon ● Dec. 10, 2025
The video conferencing company said it had 30% growth in its channel pipeline.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 26, 2025
Contracts awarded to Oricom Ltd, founded by Adam Sharoudi and Gavin Brown, for telecoms and video conferencing equipment between 2010 and 2017 breached rules on financial wrongdoing during the tendering process.
From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2025
Neufeld is in the process of fine-tuning a Zoom-based edition of “Code Green,” hoping the video conferencing service could help expose it to nonstudents.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 26, 2024
After sitting for an interview, Nilekani gave our TV crew a tour of Infosys’s global conferencing center—ground zero of the Indian outsourcing industry.
From "The World Is Flat" by Thomas L. Friedman
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.
