conference

noun

1. The act of consulting together formally; serious conversation or discussion; interchange of views.

   “Nor with such free and friendly conference / As he hath used of old.”

   “Mr. Wiley, a lawyer of some ability, was sitting in his office one day, when an elderly gentleman came in and asked to have a few words of conference with him.”

2. (obsolete)The act of comparing two or more things together; comparison.

   “helps and furtherances which […] the mutual conference of all men's collections and observations may afford”

3. A multilateral diplomatic negotiation.
4. A formal event where scientists or other scholars present their research results in speeches, workshops, posters or by other means.
5. An 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.
6. A group of sports teams that play each other on a regular basis.
7. (Philippines)A constituent tournament of a sports league in a given season.
8. A stated meeting of preachers and others, invested with authority to take cognizance of ecclesiastical matters.
9. A voluntary association of Congregational churches of a district; the district in which such churches are.
10. A talk or lecture, (Catholicism) especially when given as part of a retreat.

    ““[…]But I do know of a man who is an expert on the topic. In fact, he gave a conference here in our church not very long ago.[…]””

    “She gave a conference each evening during the retreat while Fr Dubas gave two talks during the day.”

    “Frank Underhill listened intensely as Father Master began his conference that first evening after prayers in chapel at 7:00 p.m. with an enthusiastic and entertaining account of his own first night in the Society[…].”

    “When Brother Lee came to the United States, the first conference he gave was in 1962 on the all-inclusive Christ. All the attendees were new ones, yet he did not consider that the all-inclusive Christ was too high for them. No, he gave a conference on the all-inclusive Christ, including all these points from the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.”

    “In July 2004 in Finland he gave a conference on the link between prayer and ecology, and in July 2006, speaking to some German deaconesses, he gave an an-yet-unpublished conference on a similar topic titled “Transfiguration as an Icon of the Consecrated Life.””

11. An autumn cultivar of the European pear Pyrus communis.

verb

1. (ambitransitive)To assess (a student) by one-on-one conversation, rather than an examination.

   “The students who were conferenced on paper 1 will get a written response to paper 2, and those who received a written response to paper 1 will be conferenced on paper 2.”