CONFERENCE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does conference mean? 

• CONFERENCE (noun)
  The noun CONFERENCE has 3 senses:

1. a prearranged meeting for consultation or exchange of information or discussion (especially one with a formal agenda)

2. an association of sports teams that organizes matches for its members

3. a discussion among participants who have an agreed (serious) topic

  Familiarity information: CONFERENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONFERENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A prearranged meeting for consultation or exchange of information or discussion (especially one with a formal agenda)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Hypernyms ("conference" is a kind of...):

group meeting; meeting (a formally arranged gathering)

Meronyms (members of "conference"):

conferee (a member of a conference)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conference"):

symposium (a meeting or conference for the public discussion of some topic especially one in which the participants form an audience and make presentations)

seminar (any meeting for an exchange of ideas)

colloquium (an academic meeting or seminar usually led by a different lecturer and on a different topic at each meeting)

Instance hyponyms:

Potsdam Conference (a conference held in Potsdam in the summer of 1945 where Truman, Stalin, and Churchill drew up plans for the administration of Germany and Poland after World War II ended)

Yalta Conference (a conference held in Yalta in February 1945 where Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill planned the final stages of World War II and agreed to the territorial division of Europe)

Derivation:

confer (have a conference in order to talk something over)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An association of sports teams that organizes matches for its members

Classified under:

Nouns denoting groupings of people or objects

Synonyms:

conference; league

Hypernyms ("conference" is a kind of...):

association (a formal organization of people or groups of people)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conference"):

bush league; minor league; minors (a league of teams that do not belong to a major league (especially baseball))

class; division (a league ranked by quality)

Ivy League (a league of universities and colleges in the northeastern United States that have a reputation for scholastic achievement and social prestige)

hockey league (a league of hockey teams)

football league (a league of football teams)

bowling league (a league of bowling teams)

basketball league (a league of basketball teams)

baseball league (a league of baseball teams)

big league; major league; majors (the most important league in any sport (especially baseball))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A discussion among participants who have an agreed (serious) topic

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

conference; group discussion

Hypernyms ("conference" is a kind of...):

discussion; give-and-take; word (an exchange of views on some topic)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "conference"):

colloquy (a conversation especially a formal one)

consultation (a conference between two or more people to consider a particular question)

audience; consultation; interview (a conference (usually with someone important))

huddle; powwow ((informal) a quick private conference)

news conference; press conference (a conference at which press and tv reporters ask questions of a politician or other celebrity)

pretrial; pretrial conference ((law) a conference held before the trial begins to bring the parties together to outline discovery proceedings and to define the issues to be tried; more useful in civil than in criminal cases)

round-table conference; round table; roundtable (a meeting of peers for discussion and exchange of views)

session (a meeting for execution of a group's functions)

teach-in (an extended session (as on a college campus) for lectures and discussion on an important and usually controversial issue)

teleconference; teleconferencing (a conference of people who are in different locations that is made possible by the use of such telecommunications equipment as closed-circuit television)

bull session (an informal discussion (usually among men))

Derivation:

confer (have a conference in order to talk something over)

 Context examples 

Thank God, this will be the last night of her looking on at our conferences, and feeling the sting of our not showing our confidence.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

As we walked into town to post it, Traddles and I held a long conference, and launched into a number of speculations, which I need not repeat.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

In other people's presence I was, as formerly, deferential and quiet; any other line of conduct being uncalled for: it was only in the evening conferences I thus thwarted and afflicted him.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Their conference was put an end to by the anxious young lover himself, who came to breathe his parting sigh before he set off for Wiltshire.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Results of analyses are discussed and compared at an annual CAMDA conference.

(Critical Assessment of Microarray Data Analysis, NCI Thesaurus)

It is a good month to attend a professional conference, seminar, or trade show, too.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

A conference between two or more people to consider a particular question; the act of deliberating together; confering with another researcher, physician, or expert about an issue or a case.

(Consultation, NCI Thesaurus)

We had better put an end to this most mortifying conference.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

In a few minutes she was joined by Bingley, whose conference with her father had been short and to the purpose.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

And so this strange conference ended.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)