correspondence

[ kawr-uh-spon-duhns, kor- ]

noun

1. communication by exchange of letters.
2. a letter or letters that pass between correspondents:

   It will take me all day to answer this business correspondence.

3. Also an instance of corresponding. correspond.
4. similarity or analogy.
5. agreement; conformity.

   Synonyms: consonance, concord, accord

6. news, commentary, letters, etc., received from a newspaper or magazine correspondent.
7. Mathematics. function ( def 4a ).

correspondence

/ ˌkɒrɪˈspɒndəns /

noun

1. the act or condition of agreeing or corresponding
2. similarity or analogy
3. agreement or conformity
4. 1. communication by the exchange of letters
   2. the letters so exchanged

Other Words From

• noncor·res·pondence noun
• precor·re·spondence noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of correspondence¹

1375–1425; late Middle English (< Middle French ) < Medieval Latin corrēspondentia. See correspondent, -ence

Example Sentences

The IRS received roughly 16 million individual paper returns last year and is still working its way through a huge backlog of mailed returns and correspondence.

From Washington Post

Fortunately, the search for tetrahedra that can tile three-dimensional space is aided by an elegant correspondence between the problem and two other related questions.

From Quanta Magazine

Yet knowing this correspondence was less helpful than it might seem.

From Quanta Magazine

When new insights to the nature emerge, they are stress-tested by their correspondence to reality.

From Nautilus

Why expectations matterThe correspondence between Americans’ preferred vaccine attributes and those of the vaccines we have the chance to receive could prove critical in determining how many Americans opt to vaccinate.

From Popular-Science

His correspondence, much of which survives, is that of an incisive and articulate observer.

From The Daily Beast

While Google can argue that actual employees do not read your correspondence (their robots do), Facebook can make no such claim.

From The Daily Beast

Describing by biographers as an avid writer of letters, little of his correspondence appears available to public view.

From The Daily Beast

The correspondence between the two became, in effect, an alliance by stealth, waiting for events to make it safely transparent.

From The Daily Beast

When their correspondence was finally disclosed, it needed careful parsing.

From The Daily Beast

Two days later he walked into the office of the printing firm with which he had been in correspondence.

From Project Gutenberg

She made an end of her correspondence, and sat down to a delicious little supper alone; as she best liked to enjoy these treats.

From Project Gutenberg

The correspondence of the Library has quite materially increased in volume.

From Project Gutenberg

He believed in the value of viva voce discussion, and discouraged all unnecessary inter-departmental correspondence.

From Project Gutenberg

Correspondence formed but a small part in his method of dealing with departments.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• writing