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.

Converse vs Shriek - What's the difference?

converse | shriek | Related terms |

As verbs the difference between converse and shriek

is that converse is to talk; to engage in conversation while shriek is to utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.

As nouns the difference between converse and shriek

is that converse is (noun_discourse) Familiar discourse; free interchange of thoughts or views; conversation; chat while shriek is a sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.

As an adjective converse

is opposite; reversed in order or relation; reciprocal.

converse

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl)

Verb

(convers)
  • (formal) To talk; to engage in conversation.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Companions / That do converse and waste the time together.
  • * Dryden
    • We had conversed so often on that subject.
  • To keep company; to hold intimate intercourse; to commune; followed by with .
  • * Thomson
    • To seek the distant hills, and there converse / With nature.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • Conversing with the world, we use the world's fashions.
  • * Wordsworth
    • But to converse with heaven — This is not easy.
  • (obsolete) To have knowledge of (a thing), from long intercourse or study.
  • * John Locke
    • according as the objects they converse with afford greater or less variety
    Derived terms
    * conversation

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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 .

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Opposite; reversed in order or relation; reciprocal.
    • a converse proposition

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The opposite or reverse.
  • (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.
    Derived terms
    * conversely

    Anagrams

    * * English heteronyms ----

    shriek

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A sharp, shrill outcry or scream; a shrill wild cry such as is caused by sudden or extreme terror, pain, or the like.
  • * Dryden
    • Shrieks , clamours, murmurs, fill the frighted town.
  • * 1912 : (Edgar Rice Burroughs), (Tarzan of the Apes), Chapter 5
    • Sabor, the lioness, was a wise hunter. To one less wise the wild alarm of her fierce cry as she sprang would have seemed a foolish thing, for could she not more surely have fallen upon her victims had she but quietly leaped without that loud shriek ?
  • (UK) (slang) An exclamation mark.

    • Verb

  • To utter a loud, sharp, shrill sound or cry, as do some birds and beasts; to scream, as in a sudden fright, in horror or anguish.
  • * Shakespeare
    • It was the owl that shrieked .
  • * Dryden
    • At this she shrieked aloud; the mournful train / Echoed her grief.
  • To utter sharply and shrilly; to utter in or with a shriek or shrieks.
  • * Spenser
    • The ghostly owl, shrieking his baleful note.
  • * Moore
    • She shrieked his name to the dark woods.

    Anagrams

    * *