• (RP) IPA: /kənˈvɜːs/
• (America) enPR: kənvûrs', IPA: /kənˈvɝs/

converse (converses, present participle conversing; past and past participle conversed)

1. (formal, intransitive) to talk; to engage in conversation
   • c. 1596–1598, William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act III, scene iv]:

   • We had conversed so often on that subject.

2. to keep company; to hold intimate intercourse; to commune; followed by with
   • 1727, James Thomson, Summer

     To seek the distant hills, and there converse
     With nature.

   • 1820, Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. [...] In Three Volumes, volume (please specify ), Edinburgh: Printed for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], OCLC 230694662 ↗:

     {quote-meta/quote

   • But to converse with heaven — This is not easy.

3. (obsolete) to have knowledge of (a thing), from long intercourse or study
   • 1689-1690, John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding Book II

     according as the objects they converse with afford greater or less variety

• French: converser
• German: sich unterhalten
• Italian: conversare
• Portuguese: conversar
• Russian: бесе́довать
• Spanish: conversar, tertuliar

converse

1. (now literary) familiar discourse; free interchange of thoughts or views; conversation; chat.
   • 1728, Edward Young, Love of Fame, the Universal Passion, Satire V, On Women, lines 44-46:

     Twice ere the sun descends, with zeal inspir'd, / From the vain converse of the world retir'd, / She reads the psalms and chapters for the day […]

   • 1919, Saki, ‘The Disappearance of Crispina Umerleigh’, The Toys of Peace, Penguin 2000 (Complete Short Stories), p. 405:

     In a first-class carriage of a train speeding Balkanward across the flat, green Hungarian plain, two Britons sat in friendly, fitful converse.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈkɒnvɜːs/
• (America) enPR: kŏn'vûrs, IPA: /ˈkɑnvɝs/

converse (not comparable)

1. opposite; reversed in order or relation; reciprocal

   a converse proposition

converse (plural converses)

1. the opposite or reverse
2. (logic) of a proposition or theorem of the form: given that "If A is true, then B is true", then "If B is true, then A is true."
   equivalently: given that "All Xs are Ys", then "All Ys are Xs".

   All trees are plants, but the converse, that all plants are trees, is not true.

3. (semantics) one of a pair of terms that name or describe a relationship from opposite perspectives; converse antonym; relational antonym

• French: opposé, inverse
• German: Gegenteil, Umkehrung
• Russian: противоположность
• Spanish: revés, contrario, conversión

• French: réciproque
• German: Gegenteil, Umkehrung, Umkehrschluss, Gegenschluss
• Portuguese: recíproca
• Spanish: recíproca, inversa, sentido inverso

1. Surname
2. An athletic shoe or other piece of athletic gear of an American-based brand of that name.