Other forms: conferences
A conference is a large meeting held to discuss a subject. An academic conference, conference call, party conference.
Its real work is often the corridors rather than the sessions, which is why people keep going in an age of video. In sport, a conference is a grouping of teams. Note confer, meaning both to discuss and to bestow; and that the Latin means to bring together.
1nounconferenceA large meeting held to discuss a subject.
“Doctors from all over the world came to the conference on cancer research.”
conference is a meeting.
Medieval Latin conferentia comes from conferre, to bring together — con plus ferre, to carry. Refer and transfer come from the same carrying.
Medieval Latin
cōnferentia
Middle French
conférence
English, today
conference
Borrowed from Middle French conférence, from Medieval Latin cōnferentia. From Middle French conférence, from Medieval Latin cōnferentia, from Latin cōnferēns, omitting several steps, from con- + ferō. Compare parallel Russian собра́ние, Russian сбо́рище, akin to с-, со- + брать, ultimately from the same Indo-European prefix and root. Also compare congress, convention.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA