converse

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See also: Converse and conversé

English[edit]

Etymology 1[edit]

From Old French converser, from Latin conversor (“live, have dealings with”)

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

converse (third-person singular simple present converses, present participle conversing, simple past and past participle conversed)

  1. (formal, intransitive) To talk; to engage in conversation.
    • Shakespeare
      Companions / That do converse and waste the time together.
    • Dryden
      We had conversed so often on that subject.
  2. To keep company; to hold intimate intercourse; to commune; followed by with.
    • Thomson
      To seek the distant hills, and there converse / With nature.
    • Sir Walter Scott
      Conversing with the world, we use the world's fashions.
    • Wordsworth
      But to converse with heaven — This is not easy.
  3. (obsolete) To have knowledge of (a thing), from long intercourse or study.
    • John Locke
      according as the objects they converse with afford greater or less variety
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Noun[edit]

converse (plural converses)

  1. (now literary) Familiar discourse; free interchange of thoughts or views; conversation; chat.
    • 1728, Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire V, On Women, lines 44-46:
      Twice ere the sun descends, with zeal inspir'd, / From the vain converse of the world retir'd, / She reads the psalms and chapters for the day [...].
    • 1919, Saki, ‘The Disappearance of Crispina Umerleigh’, The Toys of Peace, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 405:
      In a first-class carriage of a train speeding Balkanward across the flat, green Hungarian plain, two Britons sat in friendly, fitful converse.

Etymology 2[edit]

From Latin conversus (“turned around”), past participle of converto (“turn about”)

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

converse (not comparable)

  1. Opposite; reversed in order or relation; reciprocal.
    a converse proposition

Noun[edit]

converse (plural converses)

  1. The opposite or reverse.
  2. (logic) Of a proposition or theorem of the form: given that "If A is true, then B is true", then "If B is true, then A is true."
    equivalently: given that "All Xs are Ys", then "All Ys are Xs".
    All trees are plants, but the converse, that all plants are trees, is not true.
  3. (semantics) One of a pair of terms that name or describe a relationship from opposite perspectives; converse antonym; relational antonym
Derived terms[edit]
Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

French[edit]

Adjective[edit]

converse

  1. feminine singular of convers

Verb[edit]

converse

  1. first-person singular present indicative of converser
  2. third-person singular present indicative of converser
  3. first-person singular present subjunctive of converser
  4. third-person singular present subjunctive of converser
  5. second-person singular imperative of converser

Italian[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Verb[edit]

converse

  1. third-person singular past historic of convergere

Anagrams[edit]

Latin[edit]

Participle[edit]

converse

  1. vocative masculine singular of conversus

Portuguese[edit]

Verb[edit]

converse

  1. first-person singular present subjunctive of conversar
  2. third-person singular present subjunctive of conversar
  3. first-person singular imperative of conversar
  4. third-person singular imperative of conversar

Spanish[edit]

Verb[edit]

converse

  1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of conversar.
  2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of conversar.
  3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of conversar.
  4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted?) present subjunctive form of conversar.
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