correspond
Americanverb (used without object)
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corresponds,
present (3rd person singular)
-
corresponded,
past participle, past
-
corresponding
present participle
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to be in agreement or conformity (often followed by with orto ).
His actions do not correspond with his words.
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to be similar or analogous; be equivalent in function, position, amount, etc. (usually followed byto ).
The U.S. Congress corresponds to the British Parliament.
-
to communicate by exchange of letters.
verb
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to conform, be in agreement, or be consistent or compatible (with); tally (with)
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(usually foll by to) to be similar or analogous in character or function
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(usually foll by with) to communicate by letter
Synonym Usage
Correspond, agree, accord imply comparing persons or things and finding that they harmonize. Correspond suggests having an obvious similarity, though not agreeing in every detail: Part of this report corresponds with the facts. Agree implies having or arriving at a condition in which no essential difference of opinion or detail is evident: All the reports agree. Accord emphasizes agreeing exactly, both in fact and in point of view: This report accords with the other.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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correspondsimple
-
correspondssimple
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have correspondedperfect
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has correspondedperfect
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am correspondingprogressive
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are correspondingprogressive
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is correspondingprogressive
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have been correspondingperfect progressive
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has been correspondingperfect progressive
Past
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correspondedsimple
-
had correspondedperfect
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was correspondingprogressive
-
were correspondingprogressive
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had been correspondingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of correspond
First recorded in 1520–30; from Middle French, from Medieval Latin corrēspondēre; equivalent to cor- + respond
Explanation
When two things correspond, they match up or are equivalent to one another. You might come up with a code in which numbers correspond to letters of the alphabet. Correspond can also mean to send messages back and forth. You can use your code to correspond with your pen pal. The word correspond can mean "communicating back and forth," like using email to correspond with a far-away cousin. It can also mean "be alike," as in having friends whose interests and personalities correspond to your own. Finally, it can be "be equal to," as in getting a score on a standardized test that corresponds with those of students taking the same subjects as you but who live in other states or countries.
Vocabulary lists containing correspond
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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ACT Vocabulary List
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"Nature" by Ralph Waldo Emerson
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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:
The court adjourned until August 27 to check whether the tests "correspond to Diego Armando Maradona or someone else," presiding judge Alberto Gaig said.
From Barron's ● Aug. 20, 2026
In its annual report the fund said, “valuations of portfolio companies are estimates of fair value and may not necessarily correspond to reasonable value.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
Because the planet rotates as it moves across the face of its star, changes in the signal over time correspond to different longitudes on the planet.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 11, 2026
So all these different layers to the word bait correspond to a different layer of show, correspond to each different episode.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 11, 2026
According to Marcus, the Michigan anthropologist, the glyphs correspond to i-Earthquake, the Zapotec name for the seventeenth day of the 260-day sacred calendar.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
Analysts at Sentimentrader note that gold has entered its best seasonal window of the year — from the 134th trading day to the 207th, which corresponds to July 9 to October 21.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026
Unsurprisingly, she also found that language death often corresponds to ecological and cultural devastation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 2, 2026
"This corresponds to the neuroscientific distinction between changing one's own predictions, perceptual inference, and the attempt to make the world conform to them, namely active inference."
From Science Daily ● Jul. 1, 2026
While there is no standard definition of what income corresponds to “middle class,” the Census determined that the middle 20% of Americans had household incomes roughly between $65,100 and $105,500 in 2024.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
Tradition has it that modern Sharia Nabi Danyal corresponds to the Street of the Soma, ancient Alexandria’s primary north—south byway.
From "Circumference" by Nicholas Nicastro
Since then, I’ve corresponded with Nimblewill Nomad, the record holder and caretaker of a hostel at Flagg Mountain, the start of the Pinhoti Trail in Alabama.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
They have corresponded with previous market tops in 2000, 2007 and 2021, according to Leuthold.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 13, 2026
Although fructose and glucose produced similar short-term effects on food intake, the mice eventually developed preferences that corresponded to the degree of AgRP neuron inhibition triggered by each sugar.
From Science Daily ● Jun. 26, 2026
It was common for educated men of the era to discuss medicine, and Franklin and Jefferson corresponded with physicians throughout America and Europe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 14, 2026
Bohr’s model corresponded to experimental observation only for the very simplest atom, hydrogen, which had only one proton and one electron.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
"The issue of artificial intelligence, including the high demand for the corresponding computing modules, will not foreseeably slump," Mertin added.
From Barron's ● Aug. 23, 2026
“Ghost job” ads by companies without corresponding openings to fill have become so common that lawmakers want to ban them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 21, 2026
I am simply standing in front of it with considerably more information than I had five minutes ago, and no corresponding increase in certainty.
From Salon ● Aug. 14, 2026
A corresponding news release from Boeing said, “The transaction allows Boeing to retain strategic upside through its stake in Archer and simultaneously focus current and future investments into Boeing’s core businesses.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
The early Greeks had believed that the first being was Chaos, corresponding to the phrase in Genesis in the same context, “without form.”
From "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan
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.
