conference

See also: Conference and conférence

English

A legal conference taking place at the University of Hong Kong Faculty of Law

Etymology

From Middle French conférence, from Medieval Latin cōnferentia, from Latin cōnferēns.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒnf(ə)ɹəns/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑnf(ə)ɹəns/, [ˈkʰɑɱ.fɹəns], [ˈkʰɑɱ.fɹn̩s]

Noun

conference (plural conferences)

1. The act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views.
   • 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii]:

     Nor with such free and friendly conference / As he hath used of old.

   • 1850, T. S. Arthur, “Seed Time and Harvest”, in Sketches of Life and Character‎^[1], Philadelphia: J. W. Bradley, →OCLC, page 129:

     Mr. Wiley, a lawyer of some ability, was sitting in his office one day, when an elderly gentleman came in and asked to have a few words of conference with him.

2. (politics) A multilateral diplomatic negotiation.
3. (sciences) A formal event where scientists present their research results in speeches, workshops, posters or by other means.
4. (business) An event organized by a for-profit or non-profit organization to discuss a pressing issue, such as a new product, market trend or government regulation, with a range of speakers.
5. (sports) A group of sports teams that play each other on a regular basis.
6. (Philippines, sports) A constituent tournament of a sports league in a given season.
7. (obsolete) The act of comparing two or more things together; comparison.
   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     helps and furtherances which […] the mutual conference of all men's collections and observations may afford

8. (Methodist Church) A stated meeting of preachers and others, invested with authority to take cognizance of ecclesiastical matters.
9. A voluntary association of Congregational churches of a district; the district in which such churches are.

Derived terms

• audioconference
• conference call
• conferencee
• conferencegoer
• conference-goer
• conference interpreter
• conference interpreting
• conferencelike
• conference matrix
• conferencer
• conference room
• conference table
• conferencewide
• consensus conference
• cyberconference
• interconference
• intraconference
• junk conference
• megaconference
• multiconference
• news conference
• nonconference
• preconference
• predatory conference
• press conference
• science by press conference
• Scoutmaster conference
• spamference
• status conference
• subconference
• superconference
• teleconference
• telephone conference
• traffic conference area
• unconference
• videoconference
• video conference
• web conference

 

Translations

a meeting of people

• Afrikaans: konferensie, kongres
• Albanian: konferencë (sq) f
• Arabic: مُؤْتَمَر m (muʔtamar)

  Egyptian Arabic: مُؤْتَمَر m (muʔtamar)

• Armenian: կոնֆերանս (hy) (konferans), համաժողով (hy) (hamažoġov)
• Azerbaijani: konfrans (az)
• Belarusian: канферэ́нцыя f (kanfjeréncyja), з'езд m (zʺjezd) (congress, convention)
• Bulgarian: конфере́нция (bg) f (konferéncija), конгре́с (bg) m (kongrés)
• Burmese: ကွန်ဖရင့် (my) (kwanhpa.rang.), ညီလာခံ (my) (nyilahkam), အစည်းအဝေး (my) (a.cany:a.we:)
• Catalan: conferència (ca) f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 會議／会议 (zh) (huìyì)

• Czech: konference (cs) f (science), sjezd (cs) m (congress, convention)
• Danish: konference c
• Dinka: amatdït
• Dutch: conferentie (nl) f
• Esperanto: konferenco
• Estonian: konverents
• Faroese: ráðstevna f
• Finnish: konferenssi (fi), kokous (fi)
• French: conférence (fr) f
• Georgian: კონფერენცია (ḳonperencia)
• German: Konferenz (de) f, Tagung (de) f
• Greek: συνέδριο (el) n (synédrio), συνδιάσκεψη (el) f (syndiáskepsi), σύσκεψη (el) f (sýskepsi)
• Hebrew: וְעִידָה f (ve'ida), התוועדות f (hitva'adut), כֶּנֶס (he) m (kénes)
• Hindi: सम्मेलन (hi) m (sammelan), संगोष्ठी (hi) f (saṅgoṣṭhī)
• Hungarian: konferencia (hu), értekezlet (hu), tárgyalás (hu), tanácskozás (hu), megbeszélés (hu)
• Indonesian: konferensi (id)
• Irish: comhdháil f
• Italian: conferenza (it) f
• Japanese: 会議 (ja) (かいぎ, kaigi)
• Kazakh: конференция (konferensiä)
• Khmer: សន្និសីទ (km) (sɑnnisət), កិច្ចប្រជុំ (kəc prɑcum)
• Korean: 회의(會議) (ko) (hoe'ui)
• Kurdish:

  Central Kurdish: کۆنفرانس (konifranis)

  Northern Kurdish: konferans (ku)

• Kyrgyz: конференция (konferentsiya)
• Lao: ກອງປະຊຸມ (kǭng pa sum), ການປະຊຸມ (lo) (kān pa sum)
• Latin: congressus m, colloquium (la)
• Latvian: konference f
• Lithuanian: konferencija f
• Macedonian: конференција f (konferencija)
• Malay: persidangan (ms)
• Malayalam: സമ്മേളനം (ml) (sammēḷanaṁ)
• Manx: co-whaiyl f
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: хурал (mn) (xural)

• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: konferanse (no) m

• Occitan: conferéncia (oc) f
• Ottoman Turkish: قونفرانس (konferans)
• Pashto: کنفرانس m (kanfarãns)
• Persian: کنفرانس (fa) (konferâns), همایش (fa) (hamâyeš), گردهمایی (gerde-ham-âyi)
• Polish: konferencja (pl) f, zjazd (pl) m (congress, convention)
• Portuguese: conferência (pt) f
• Romanian: conferință (ro) f
• Russian: конфере́нция (ru) f (konferéncija), съезд (ru) m (sʺjezd) (congress, convention)
• Scottish Gaelic: còmhdhail f
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: конферѐнција f, се̏дница f, сје̏дница f

  Roman: konferèncija (sh) f, sȅdnica (sh) f, sjȅdnica (sh) f

• Slovak: konferencia f, zjazd m (congress, convention)
• Slovene: konferenca f
• Sotho: seboka
• Southern Altai: јуун (ǰuun)
• Spanish: conferencia (es) f
• Swedish: konferens (sv)
• Tagalog: atba
• Tajik: конференсия (tg) (konferensiya), конфронс (konfrons), ҳамоиш (hamoyiš)
• Thai: การประชุม (th) (gaan-bprà-chum)
• Turkish: konferans (tr), toplantı (tr)
• Turkmen: konferensiýa
• Ukrainian: конфере́нція (uk) f (konferéncija), з'їзд (uk) m (zʺjizd) (congress, convention)
• Urdu: مذاکرہ m (muzākarā), کانفرنس (kānferens)
• Uyghur: يىغىن (yighin)
• Uzbek: konferentsiya (uz)
• Vietnamese: hội nghị (vi) (會議)
• Welsh: cynhadledd f
• Yiddish: קאָנפֿערענץ f (konferents)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

See also

• discussant, lecturer, parleyer, prelector, speaker.

The Writing-Rich High School Classroom: Engaging Students in ...

Verb

conference (third-person singular simple present conferences, present participle conferencing, simple past and past participle conferenced)

1. (transitive, intransitive, education) To assess (a student) by one-on-one conversation, rather than an examination.
   • 2009, Jennifer Berne, The Writing-Rich High School Classroom:

     The students who were conferenced on paper 1 will get a written response to paper 2, and those who received a written response to paper 1 will be conferenced on paper 2.