What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Convention vs Policy - What's the difference?

convention | policy |

As nouns the difference between convention and policy

is that convention is a meeting or gathering while policy is (obsolete) the art of governance; political science or policy can be a contract of insurance.

As a verb policy is

to regulate by laws; to reduce to order.

convention

Noun

(en noun)
  • A meeting or gathering.
  • The convention was held in Geneva.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2012 , date=May 30 , author=Katherine Stewart , title=How Christian fundamentalists plan to teach genocide to schoolchildren , work=the Guardian citation , page= , passage=The CEF and the legal advocacy groups that have been responsible for its tremendous success over the past ten years are determined to "Knock down all doors, all the barriers, to all 65,000 public elementary schools in America and take the Gospel to this open mission field now! Not later, now!" in the words of a keynote speaker at the CEF's national convention in 2010.}}
  • A formal deliberative assembly of mandated delegates
  • ''The EU installed an inter-institutional Convention to draft a European constitution
  • The convening of a formal meeting
  • A formal agreement, contract or pact
  • (international law) A treaty or supplement to such.
  • ''The Vienna convention at the Vienna Congress (1814-15) standardized most of diplomatic conduct for generations
  • A generally accepted principle, method or behaviour.
  • *
  • In order to account for this, we might propose to make the Prepositional Phrase an optional constituent of the Verb Phrase: this we could do by re-
    placing rule (28) (ii) by rule (40) below:
    (40)      VP → V AP (PP)
    (Note that a constituent in parentheses is, by convention , taken to be
    optional.)
    ''Table seatings are generally determined by tacit convention , not binding formal protocol
    The convention of driving on the right is reinforced by law.

    Derived terms

    * by convention * coding conventions * conventional, conventionally * conventionalize * conventioneer * convention centre, convention center * naming convention * pictorial convention * trade convention

    policy

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) policie, from . Compare police.

    Noun

    (policies)
  • (obsolete) The art of governance; political science.
  • * a. 1616 , (William Shakespeare), Henry V , I.1:
  • List his discourse of Warre; and you shall heare / A fearefull Battaile rendred you in Musique. / Turne him to any Cause of Pollicy , / The Gordian Knot of it he will vnloose, / Familiar as his Garter
  • (obsolete) A state; a polity.
  • (obsolete) A set political system; civil administration.
  • (obsolete) A trick; a stratagem.
  • * a. 1594 , (William Shakespeare), Titus Andronicus :
  • 'Tis pollicie , and stratageme must doe / That you affect, and so must you resolue, / That what you cannot as you would atcheiue, / You must perforce accomplish as you may.
  • A principle of behaviour, conduct etc. thought to be desirable or necessary, especially as formally expressed by a government or other authoritative body.
  • The Communist Party has a policy of returning power to the workers.
  • Wise or advantageous conduct; prudence, formerly also with connotations of craftiness.
  • * 1813 , Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice , Modern Library Edition (1995), page 140:
  • These bitter accusations might have been suppressed, had I with greater policy concealed my struggles, and flattered you
  • * Fuller
  • The very policy of a hostess, finding his purse so far above his clothes, did detect him.
  • (now, rare) Specifically, political shrewdness or (formerly) cunning; statecraft.
  • * 1946 , (Bertrand Russell), History of Western Philosophy , I.25:
  • Whether he believed himself a god, or only took on the attributes of divinity from motives of policy , is a question for the psychologist, since the historical evidence is indecisive.
  • (Scotland, now, chiefly, in the plural) The grounds of a large country house.
  • * 1955 , (Robin Jenkins), The Cone-Gatherers , Canongate 2012, page 36:
  • Next morning was so splendid that as he walked through the policies towards the mansion house despair itself was lulled.
  • (obsolete) Motive; object; inducement.
  • * Sir Philip Sidney
  • What policy have you to bestow a benefit where it is counted an injury?
    Derived terms
    * policied * policymaker * policy shift * endowment policy * fiscal policy * honesty is the best policy * monetary policy * policy mix

    Verb

  • To regulate by laws; to reduce to order.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Policying of cities.''

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl) police, from (etyl) polizza, from

    Noun

    (policies)
  • A contract of insurance
  • * Your insurance policy covers fire and theft only.
  • (obsolete) An illegal daily lottery in late nineteenth and early twentieth century USA on numbers drawn from a lottery wheel (no plural )
  • A number pool lottery
  • Synonyms
    * (number pool) policy racket
    Derived terms
    * policyholder