symposium
noun
Simple meaning
A conference or other meeting for discussion of a topic.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
sihmpohzeeuhmSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
sɪm.ˈpoʊ.zi.əm
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A conference or other meeting for discussion of a topic, especially one in which the participants make presentations.
A drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B1 · Intermediate (estimated)
- Frequency
- Common
- Typical Use
- General English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A conference or other meeting for discussion of a topic, especially one in which the participants make presentations.
Used this way, symposium is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use symposium
- “Researchers will present their findings at the scientific symposium.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
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Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- forumnoun
- seminarnoun
- topicnoun
- conferencenoun
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API (CC BY-SA 3.0). Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.