different between explain vs converse

English

Etymology

From Middle English explanen, from Old French explaner, from Latin explan? (“I flatten, spread out, make plain or clear, explain”), from ex- (“out”) + plan? (“I flatten, make level”), from planus (“level, plain”); see plain and plane. Compare esplanade, splanade. Displaced Old English ?ere??an.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?k?sple?n/, /?k?sple?n/
• Rhymes: -e?n

Verb

explain (third-person singular simple present explains, present participle explaining, simple past and past participle explained)

1. To make plain, manifest, or intelligible; to clear of obscurity; to illustrate the meaning of.
2. To give a valid excuse for past behavior.
3. (obsolete) To make flat, smooth out.
4. (obsolete) To unfold or make visible.
   • April 14, 1684, John Evelyn, a letter sent to the Royal Society concerning the damage done to his gardens by the preceding winter

     The horse-chestnut is […] ready to explain its leaf.

5. (intransitive) To make something plain or intelligible.

Synonyms

• (give a sufficiently detailed report): expound, elaborate, recce

Derived terms

• afore-explained
• explain away
• explainer
• mansplain
• please explain
• -splain

Related terms

• explanation
• explanatory

Translations

Further reading

• explain in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• explain in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• explain at OneLook Dictionary Search

English

Etymology 1

From Old French converser, from Latin conversor (“live, have dealings with”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /k?n?v??s/
• (US) enPR: k?nvûrs', IPA^(key): /k?n?v?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)s

Verb

converse (third-person singular simple present converses, present participle conversing, simple past and past participle conversed)

1. (formal, intransitive) to talk; to engage in conversation
   • 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy

     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.

   • 1814, William Wordsworth, The Excursion

     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

Derived terms

• conversation

Translations

Noun

converse

2. (now literary) free verbal 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 Latin conversus (“turned around”), past participle of converto (“turn about”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?nv??s/
• (US) enPR: k?n'vûrs, IPA^(key): /?k?nv?s/

Adjective

converse (not comparable)

1. opposite; reversed in order or relation; reciprocal

Noun

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.

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

Derived terms

• conversely

Translations

Anagrams

• Cervones, conserve, coveners, encovers

French

Pronunciation

Adjective

converse f sg

1. feminine singular of convers

Verb

converse

1. first-person singular present indicative of converser
2. third-person singular present indicative of converser
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of converser
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of converser
5. second-person singular imperative of converser

Italian

Alternative forms

• convergé (rare)

Verb

converse

1. third-person singular past historic of convergere

Anagrams

• conserve, scernevo

Latin

Participle

converse

1. vocative masculine singular of conversus

Portuguese

Verb

converse

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of conversar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of conversar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of conversar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of conversar

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kom?be?se/, [kõm?be?.se]

Verb

converse

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of conversar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of conversar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of conversar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of conversar.