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What is the difference between conversation and chat?

conversation | chat | Synonyms |

Chat is a synonym of conversation.



As nouns the difference between conversation and chat

is that conversation is expression and exchange of individual ideas through talking with other people; also, a set instance or occasion of such talking while chat is {{cx|uncountable|lang=en}} Informal conversation.

As verbs the difference between conversation and chat

is that conversation is to engage in conversation (with) while chat is to be engaged in informal conversation.

conversation

Noun

(en noun)
  • Expression and exchange of individual ideas through talking with other people; also, a set instance or occasion of such talking.
  • * 1699 , , Heads designed for an essay on conversations
  • Study gives strength to the mind; conversation , grace: the first apt to give stiffness, the other suppleness: one gives substance and form to the statue, the other polishes it.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=5 , passage=When this conversation was repeated in detail within the hearing of the young woman in question, and undoubtedly for his benefit, Mr. Trevor threw shame to the winds and scandalized the Misses Brewster then and there by proclaiming his father to have been a country storekeeper.}}
  • * , chapter=12
  • , title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=All this was extraordinarily distasteful to Churchill.
  • (fencing) The back-and-forth play of the blades in a bout.
  • (obsolete) Interaction; commerce or intercourse with other people; dealing with others.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Acts XI:
  • Yt chaunsed thatt a whole yere they had their conversacion with the congregacion there, and taught moche people insomoche thatt the disciples off Antioche we the fyrst that wer called Christen.
  • (archaic) Behaviour, the way one conducts oneself; a person's way of life.
  • *, New York Review of Books, 2001, p.50:
  • There are many that take no heed what happeneth to others by bad conversation , and therefore overthrow themselves in the same manner through their own fault, not foreseeing dangers manifest.
  • (obsolete) Sexual intercourse.
  • * 1723 , Charles Walker, Memoirs of the Life of Sally Salisbury :
  • (Ariadne)quitted her Lover (Theseus), for the tumultuous Conversation of (Bacchus).
  • * 1749 , (Henry Fielding), , Folio Society 1973, p. 333:
  • The landlady therefore would by no means have admitted any conversation of a disreputable kind to pass under her roof.
  • (computing) The protocol-based interaction between systems processing a transaction.
  • Synonyms

    * (expression and exchange of ideas through talking) banter, chat, chinwag, dialogue, discussion, interlocution, powwow, table talk

    Derived terms

    * conversational * conversation piece

    Usage notes

    * To make conversation means to start a conversation with someone with no other aim than to talk and break the silence. * To have' a conversation, and to ' hold a conversation, both mean to converse. * See

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (nonstandard, ambitransitive) To engage in conversation (with).
  • * 1983 , James Frederick Mason, Hélène Joséphine Harvitt, The French review
  • Gone now are the "high-minded" style, the "adapted from literature" feel, the voice-over narration, and the abstract conversationing about ideas, values...
  • * 1989 , Robert L Gale, A Henry James encyclopedia
  • ...he has breakfasted me, dined me, conversationed me, absolutely caressed me. He has been really most kind and paternal...
  • * 2002 , Georgie Nickell, I Only Smoke on Thursdays
  • After all this conversationing , Scottie, my usual dance partner, was getting antsy and wanted to dance.

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    chat

    English

    (wikipedia chat)

    Etymology 1

    Abbreviation of chatter . The bird sense refers to the sound of its call.

    Verb

    (chatt)
  • To be engaged in informal conversation.
  • She chatted with her friend in the cafe.
    I like to chat over a coffee with a friend.
  • To talk more than a few words.
  • I met my old friend in the street, so we chatted for a while.
  • To talk of; to discuss.
  • They chatted politics for a while.
  • To exchange text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, as if having a face-to-face conversation.
  • Do you want to chat online later?

    Noun

  • Informal conversation.
  • * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham)
  • , title=(The China Governess) , chapter=Foreword citation , passage=Reg liked a chat about old times and we used to go and have a chinwag in the pub.}}
  • A conversation to stop an argument or settle situations.
  • An exchange of text or voice messages in real time through a computer network, resembling a face-to-face conversation.
  • Any of various small Old World passerine birds in the subfamily Saxicolini that feed on insects.
  • Derived terms
    * backchat * chatroom * chat up * stonechat * whinchat

    Etymology 2

    Compare chit'' "small piece of paper", and ''chad''.William Safire, ''The Right Word in the Right Place at the Right Time , p. 43, Simon and Schuster, 2007 ISBN 1416587403.

    Noun

  • A small potato, such as is given to swine.
  • References

    Etymology 3

    Origin unknown.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Mining waste from lead and zinc mines.
  • * 2006 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day , Vintage 2007, p. 441:
  • Frank had been looking at calcite crystals for a while now [...] among the chats or zinc tailings of the Lake County mines, down here in the silver lodes of the Vita Madre and so forth.

    Etymology 4

    From .

    Alternative forms

    * chatt

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • .
  • * 1977 , Mary Emily Pearce, Apple Tree Lean Down , page 520:
  • 'Do officers have chats , then, the same as us?'
    'Not the same, no. The chats they got is bigger and better, with pips on their shoulders and Sam Browne belts.'
  • * 2007 , How Can I Sleep when the Seagull Calls? (ISBN 978-1-4357-1811-1), page 18:
  • May a thousand chats from Belgium crawl under their fingers as they write.
  • * 2013 , Graham Seal, The Soldiers' Press: Trench Journals in the First World War (ISBN 1137303263), page 149:
  • Trench foot'' was a nasty and potentially fatal foot disease commonly caused by these conditions, in which ''chats or body lice were the bane of all.

    Etymology 5

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Anagrams

    * (l), (l), (l), (l) ----