From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Conversation \Con'ver*sa"tion\, noun [OE. conversacio (in senses 1 & 2), OF. conversacion, F. conversation, fr. L. conversatio frequent abode in a place, intercourse, LL. also, manner of life.]
1. General course of conduct; behavior. [Archaic]
Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel. --Philip. i. 27.
2. Familiar intercourse; intimate fellowship or association; close acquaintance. ''Conversation with the best company.'' --Dryden.
I set down, out of long experience in business and much conversation in books, what I thought pertinent to this business. --Bacon.
3. Commerce; intercourse; traffic. [Obs.]
All traffic and mutual conversation. --Hakluyt.
4. Colloquial discourse; oral interchange of sentiments and observations; informal dialogue.
The influence exercised by his [Johnson's] conversation was altogether without a parallel. --Macaulay.
5. Sexual intercourse; as, criminal conversation.
Syn: Intercourse; communion; commerce; familiarity; discourse; dialogue; colloquy; talk; chat.
Usage: {Conversation}, {Talk}. There is a looser sense of these words, in which they are synonymous; there is a stricter sense, in which they differ. Talk is usually broken, familiar, and versatile. Conversation is more continuous and sustained, and turns ordinarily upon topics or higher interest. Children talk to their parents or to their companions; men converse together in mixed assemblies. Dr. Johnson once remarked, of an evening spent in society, that there had been a great deal of talk, but no conversation.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: the use of speech for informal exchange of views or ideas or information etc.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
69 Moby Thesaurus words for "conversation": ESP, accents, answer, chat, chatter, collegiality, colloquy, comment, commerce, communication, communion, community, confabulation, congress, connection, contact, converse, correspondence, dealing, dealings, debate, deliberation, dialogue, discourse, discussion, elocution, exchange, fellowship, gab, gossip, information, interaction, interchange, intercommunication, intercommunion, intercourse, interplay, language, linguistic intercourse, message, observation, oral communication, palaver, parley, parole, prattle, rapping, remark, repartee, reply, response, social activity, social intercourse, social relations, speaking, speech, speech circuit, speech situation, talk, talking, telepathy, touch, traffic, truck, two-way communication, ventilation, words, yakkety-yak, yakking
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
CONVERSATION, noun A fair to the display of the minor mental commodities, each exhibitor being too intent upon the arrangement of his own wares to observe those of his neighbor.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Conversation generally the goings out and in of social intercourse (Eph. 2:3; 4:22; R.V., "manner of life"); one's deportment or course of life. This word is never used in Scripture in the sense of verbal communication from one to another (Ps. 50:23; Heb. 13:5). In Phil. 1:27 and 3:20, a different Greek word is used. It there means one's relations to a community as a citizen, i.e., citizenship.
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