kənˈvenchən noun
( -s )
Etymology: Middle English convencioun, from Middle French or Latin; Middle French convention, from Latin convention-, conventio, from conventus (past participle of convenire to come together, be suitable, agree) + -ion-, -io -ion — more at convene
1.
a. : an agreement between persons or parties
b. : an agreement between two or more states arranging for the regulation of matters affecting all of them (as postage, copyright, or the conduct of war)
c. : an agreement enforceable in law : contract , covenant
d. : a compact between commanders of opposing armies especially concerning the exchange of prisoners or the suspension of hostilities
e. : an agreement or decision about basic concepts or principles (as geometric axioms) voluntarily but not altogether arbitrarily arrived at though based neither on physical experiments nor on a priori judgments
f. : an axiom or principle regarded as true by convention
2.
a.
(1) obsolete : a meeting or coming together by chance or plan of two or more persons
(2) obsolete : the gathering together or union of things
(3) obsolete : the act of summoning before a court or other authority
(4) : the summoning or convening of an assembly
forced his convention of the council
b.
(1) : a body or assembly of persons met for some common purpose ; especially : a formal and special or regular assembly of delegates or members of a party or association met to accomplish some specific civil, social, political, or ecclesiastical object or for the exchange of ideas, views, and information of common interest to the group
an annual sales convention
the American Legion convention
(2) : a special assembly of representatives or delegates convened for the purpose of framing or amending a constitution
(3) : a meeting of the local members of an American political party or of delegates on the county, state, or national level for the purpose of formulating the party platform or of selecting candidates for office
the Democratic national convention
aldermanic district convention
c. : a state or national organization of one of several Protestant denominations
the American Baptist Convention
the North Carolina state convention
d. : an Episcopal diocesan or general legislative assembly
3.
a. : usage, custom, or practice generally agreed on and followed especially in social usage or moral matters
words express whatever meaning convention has attached to them — O.W.Holmes †1935
rigid convention prescribes that such meetings open with prayer — D.L.Cohn
the child is trained to fit into his world, both of fact and convention — H.A.Overstreet
b. : a rule, custom, or belief widely accepted and established by long usage
this … is not a rule of law; it is a usage or convention of the Commonwealth which is accepted as binding in practice by all the members — K.C.Wheare
: a rule of conduct or behavior : a customary pattern of conduct
a rebel against the conventions of education — Allen Johnson
: a rule, mode, or principle of conduct accepted by society
Henry the Fifth, who asserted that the great made their conventions and lesser people followed them — J.F.Wharton
c. : a practice in bidding or playing that by agreement between partners in certain card games (as bridge) conveys some information not necessarily deducible by logic
d.
(1) : a practice, device, or mode of performance established by custom and widely recognized and accepted
the convention of the first-person narrator who observes all but is not implicated in the action
singing conventions such as the use of falsetto and nasality
putting a front-view eye into a profile face, a convention found in all primitive art — Herbert Read
: a representation or mode of performance recognized as a substitute for a natural form or mode
the conventions of Renaissance iconography
(2) : a representation (as in art or design) that simplifies, symbolizes, or substitutes for a natural form
the convention of representing vegetation by circles and slabs
Synonyms: see form