conference
Definition, pronunciation, etymology, and usage for the English word. Free spelling reference powered by Wiktionary.
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10 characters
Language
English
word origin
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Detailed reference entry for the English word "conference", 10-letters, with pronunciation in International Phonetic Alphabet notation, etymology traced through Germanic and Romance roots where applicable, common misspelling variants catalogued from Hunspell error dictionaries, and usage frequency ranked against the top 100,000 English words in the Wordfreq corpus. PlainSpell covers English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German spelling with confusable-pair detection that highlights visually and phonetically similar words. This entry for "conference" includes synonyms, antonyms, homophones, and cross-language translation pointers sourced from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org extract. Whether you are verifying the correct spelling of "conference" for academic writing, checking homophone confusion, or exploring etymological origins, this page provides a citation-backed, free reference that requires no sign-up.
conference is aEnglishnoun. It means: The act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views. Pronounced /ˈkɒn.f(ə.)ɹəns/. It ranks #1,047 in English word frequency. Often confused with confidence and confluence.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | conference |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɒn.f(ə.)ɹəns/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #1,047 |
| Misspellings tracked | 16 |
| Confusable pairs | 4 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency rank visualization
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for conference is 10 letters long, classified as anoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkɒn.f(ə.)ɹəns/. Corpus data places it at rank #1,047 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text.Wiktionary records 10 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our Hunspell-derived misspelling index lists 16 documented wrong-spelling variants for conference, with forms such as "cconference", "cnoference", and "cofnerence". Each variant represents a distinct typo pattern that appears often enough in corpora to be worth flagging, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution.It also participates in 4 confusable-pair relationships, "confidence", "confluence", "convergence", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle French conférence, from Medieval Latin cōnferentia, from Latin cōnferēns, several steps omitting from con- + ferō. Compare parallel Russian собра́ние (sobránije), Russian сбо́рище (sbórišče), akin to с- (s-), со- (so-) + брать (bratʹ), ultimatel… Root origin matters for spelling because borrowed morphemes (Greek, Latin, Old French, Old English) carry their source-language orthographic conventions into modern English, which is why historical etymology is often the cleanest predictor of whether a cluster like "-ough", "-eau", or "-tion" will appear. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct English form is conference, spelled C-O-N-F-E-R-E-N-C-E, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1The act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views.
- 2The act of comparing two or more things together; comparison.
- 3A multilateral diplomatic negotiation.
- 4A formal event where scientists or other scholars present their research results in speeches, workshops, posters or by other means.
- 5An event organized by a for-profit or non-profit organization to discuss a pressing issue, such as a new product, market trend or government regulation, with a range of speakers.
- 6A group of sports teams that play each other on a regular basis.
- 7A constituent tournament of a sports league in a given season.
- 8A stated meeting of preachers and others, invested with authority to take cognizance of ecclesiastical matters.
- 9A voluntary association of Congregational churches of a district; the district in which such churches are.
- 10A talk or lecture, (Catholicism) especially when given as part of a retreat.
Etymology
From Middle French conférence, from Medieval Latin cōnferentia, from Latin cōnferēns, several steps omitting from con- + ferō. Compare parallel Russian собра́ние (sobránije), Russian сбо́рище (sbórišče), akin to с- (s-), со- (so-) + брать (bratʹ), ultimately from the same Indo-European prefix and root. Also compare congress, convention.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cconference,cnoference,cofnerence,conefrence,confeernce,conferance,conferecne,conferencce,conferenec,conferennce,confernece,conferrence,confference,confreence,connference,ocnference
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
Relative frequency of common misspelling types for conference
Misspelling Variants of "conference"
Frequency rank: #1,047 in English
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Nearby English words
Other entries that begin with the letter C in our English index: