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• converse
  converse

  verb (used without object)

  to talk informally with another or others; exchange views, opinions, etc., by talking.
• Converse
  Converse

  noun

  Frederick Shepherd 1871–1940, U.S. composer.

converse

¹ American  

[kuhn-vurs, kon-vurs] / kənˈvɜrs, ˈkɒn vɜrs /

verb (used without object)

• converses,
  present (3rd person singular)
• conversed,
  past participle,  past
• conversing
  present participle

1. to talk informally with another or others; exchange views, opinions, etc., by talking.

   Synonyms:

   jaw, gab, talk, confer, chat

2. Archaic. to maintain a familiar association (usually followed bywith ).

3. Obsolete. to have sexual intercourse (usually followed bywith ).

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noun

1. familiar discourse or talk; conversation.

converse ² American  

[kuhn-vurs, kon-vurs, kon-vurs] / kənˈvɜrs, ˈkɒn vɜrs, ˈkɒn vɜrs /

adjective

1. opposite or contrary in direction, action, sequence, etc.; turned around.

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noun

1. something opposite or contrary.

2. Logic.

   1. a proposition obtained from another proposition by conversion.

   2. the relation between two terms, one of which is related to the other in a given manner, as “younger than” to “older than.”

3. a group of words correlative with a preceding group but having a significant pair of terms interchanged, as “hot in winter but cold in summer” and “cold in winter but hot in summer.”

Converse ³ American  

[kon-vurs] / ˈkɒn vɜrs /

noun

1. Frederick Shepherd 1871–1940, U.S. composer.

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converse ¹ British  

verb

1. to engage in conversation (with)

2. to commune spiritually (with)

3. obsolete

   1. to associate; consort

   2. to have sexual intercourse

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noun

1. conversation (often in the phrase hold converse with )

2. obsolete

   1. fellowship or acquaintance

   2. sexual intercourse

converse ² British  

/ ˈkɒnvɜːs /

adjective

1. (prenominal) reversed; opposite; contrary

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noun

1. something that is opposite or contrary

2. logic

   1. a categorical proposition obtained from another by the transposition of subject and predicate, as no bad man is bald from no bald man is bad

   2. a proposition so derived, possibly by weakening a universal proposition to the corresponding particular, as some socialists are rich from all rich men are socialists

3. logic maths a relation that holds between two relata only when a given relation holds between them in reverse order: thus father of is the converse of son of

Synonym Usage

See speak.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• converser
  noun
• conversely
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Participles

• conversing
  present
• conversed
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• converse
  simple
• converses
  simple
• have conversed
  perfect
• has conversed
  perfect
• am conversing
  progressive
• are conversing
  progressive
• is conversing
  progressive
• have been conversing
  perfect progressive
• has been conversing
  perfect progressive

Past

• conversed
  simple
• had conversed
  perfect
• was conversing
  progressive
• were conversing
  progressive
• had been conversing
  perfect progressive

Future

• will converse
  simple
• will have conversed
  perfect
• will be conversing
  progressive
• will have been conversing
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of converse¹

First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English conversen, from Middle French converser, from Latin conversārī “to associate with”; see con-, verse

Origin of converse²

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English convers, from Anglo-French or directly from Latin conversus, past participle of convertere “to turn around,” equivalent to con- “with, together” + vert- “to turn” + -tus past participle suffix; cf. convert ¹

Explanation

Converse is a more formal way of saying "carry on a conversation." You could converse with your best friend for hours over lunch, but continue the chit-chat through the afternoon matinee and you might get shushed. Oddly enough, converse was originally a verb meaning “to move about, live or dwell” when it first came into existence in the mid 14th century. But today we only use converse to talk about, well, talking. Quipped the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, “When marrying, one should ask oneself this question: Do you believe that you will be able to converse well with this woman into your old age?” A good question for marrying men and women!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

converse Converse converses conversed conversing

A lot of the time, these folks converse like they’re at a Nantucket board of health meeting.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026

The company will expand its "ask" feature which can enable parents to control whom their children can speak with, requiring parental approval before they can converse with an unknown person.

From BBC ● Jun. 8, 2026

Meanwhile, a separate team of coders that made Moltbook, a Reddit-like pseudo social network where OpenClaw agents converse, are joining Meta.

From Barron's ● Mar. 13, 2026

AI chatbots like ChatGPT learned to converse, make music, generate images, and write code by using all the information they could get from the internet.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2026

Instead I beckoned him to come and converse with me, but he only bowed as if I were a stranger and not his sister.

From "Ophelia" by Lisa Klein

You may have seen Elsesser’s face staring back in brand campaigns for everyone from Calvin Klein to Tommy Hilfiger or bought his signature line of Converse skate shoes.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 7, 2026

Prosecutors played soundless footage of him that night, wearing a maroon shirt, dark hat, jeans and Converse shoes, and he was transported back to Utah County and formally booked on 12 September.

From BBC ● Jul. 11, 2026

The sneaker giant will move some of the Converse footwear manufacturing resources closer to factory partners and it will reorganize how its materials supply chain operates.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 23, 2026

Investors instead zeroed in on declining profit, softer sales in Greater China, and a 30% slump in revenue for the Converse footwear brand.

From Barron's ● Jan. 12, 2026

For a while what he did bring was the Converse shoe box, and it had become sort of a tradition for us to dump the contents onto my bed and go through the pictures.

From "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet" by Joanne Proulx

Sometimes she converses with its voice assistant while driving her car.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 6, 2025

She converses with the corpse of her father, apparently a chancellor before her, rotting away in a glass coffin.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 2, 2024

Eugenie says she converses with others through the food she makes.

From Salon ● Feb. 9, 2024

In its relative orderliness and palatability, “Yes and Yes” is not really a danced analogy to the book, but something else, complex in its own ways, true to Roche’s voice as she converses with another.

From New York Times ● May 5, 2023

He occasionally converses about the circus with his fellow pub dwellers.

From "The Night Circus" by Erin Morgenstern

Michl Binderbauer, chief executive of TAE, said in an interview that he has spoken with Donald Trump Jr., who will sit on the company’s nine-person board, but hasn’t conversed with the president.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 19, 2025

Norman said he conversed with Trump twice on Friday.

From BBC ● Jan. 3, 2025

The actor conversed with Evans in anticipation of his upcoming Apple TV+ drama series “Bad Monkey.”

From Salon ● Aug. 7, 2024

As they conversed over the text console, Remi watched from the middle of the theater, closing her left eye again and again.

From Slate ● Jan. 27, 2024

That evening in New York, we ate, drank, and conversed in the candlelight, reveling in the feeling, however illusory, that we’d stolen away.

From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama

During the pandemic, some employees would spent their lunch breaks conversing with the chatbots for fun, Zinger said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 15, 2026

Before her departure, Keyser appeared in the first 20 minutes of Thursday's episode, conversing with one of the male contestants before appearing briefly in two further non-speaking scenes.

From BBC ● Jun. 26, 2026

Crowded open offices are not designed for many people to be conversing with their computers at the same time.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026

What’s coming next is hardware dedicated to making the experience of conversing with our tech that much easier.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 24, 2026

The animals were now busy conversing with each other, the forest once again lively with chatter, but he felt the distinct sensation that they were keeping an eye on him.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman