symposium
Americannoun
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a meeting or conference for the discussion of some subject, especially a meeting at which several speakers talk on or discuss a topic before an audience.
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a collection of opinions expressed or articles contributed by several persons on a given subject or topic.
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an account of a discussion meeting or of the conversation at it.
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(in ancient Greece and Rome) a convivial meeting, usually following a dinner, for drinking and intellectual conversation.
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(initial capital letter, italics) a philosophical dialogue (4th century b.c.) by Plato, dealing with ideal love and the vision of absolute beauty.
noun
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a conference or meeting for the discussion of some subject, esp an academic topic or social problem
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a collection of scholarly contributions, usually published together, on a given subject
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(in classical Greece) a drinking party with intellectual conversation, music, etc
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of symposium
1580–90; < Latin < Greek sympósion drinking party, equivalent to sym- sym- + po- (variant stem of pī́nein to drink) + -sion noun suffix
Explanation
A symposium is a public meeting about a topic in which people give presentations. If your knitting club holds a symposium, various knitters will give presentations about anything having to do with knitting. A symposium can be a one-time conference or a regular meeting, but it will probably include some amount of discussion or public speeches on a particular subject. Many people who attend symposiums will be part of the audience for many of the presentations, but during the course of the event, give their own presentation or be part of a panel discussion.
Vocabulary lists containing symposium
Ancient Greece - Introductory
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National Spelling Bee '14: Prelims Round 3
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Ancient Greece - Middle School and High School
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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.
Fed officials making comments include governor Stephen Miran speaking at a financial system symposium at 6:20 p.m.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026
I disagreed with the premise of the symposium and declined.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 29, 2026
The symposium included twelve specialists representing nutrition, food science, dietetics, nutrition metabolism and physiology, cardiovascular and cognitive health, gut health and microbiology, and both preclinical and clinical research models.
From Science Daily • Jan. 27, 2026
In the early ’90s while working for Walt Disney Imagineering, the company’s secretive arm devoted to theme park experiences, Sotto took it upon himself to hold a chef-led symposium for Imagineers.
From Los Angeles Times • Dec. 22, 2025
The symposium featured a full-scale reproduction, fifteen feet wide and thirty-four feet long, complete with actual artifacts and bones, of a particularly profitable section of Howard's excavation.
From "1491" by Charles C. Mann
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.
