Other forms: converted, converting, converts
To convert something is to change it into another form. You convert dollars into euros at the airport, convert a loft into a bedroom, convert a spreadsheet into a PDF before you send it.
The other half of the word is belief: people convert to Islam, to Catholicism, to a vegan diet, and someone who has changed belief is a convert — a noun with the stress at the front, CONvert, while the verb is conVERT. Mind the prepositions: you convert something INTO something else, but you convert TO a religion or a system. Rugby has its own use, converting a try into extra points, and sales people talk about converting visitors into customers. The fixed phrase is preaching to the converted: arguing for something in front of people who already agree.
1verbconvertTo change something into a different form, use or state.
“They converted the old barn into a café.”
2verbpersuadeTo change your religion or beliefs, or to persuade someone else to.
“He converted to Judaism the year before the wedding.”
3nountakenA person who has taken up a new religion or belief.
“The church was full of recent converts.”
4verbsportIn sport, to turn a chance or a try into points.
“He converted the penalty in the last minute of the game.”
Also accepted in games: transform
Convert came through Middle English converten and Old French convertir from Latin converto, 'to turn around', tracing back to a Proto-Indo-European root *wert-, to turn. Every conversion in the word is a turning: the barn turned into a house, the believer turned to face a new faith.
Proto-Indo-European
*wert-
Middle English
converten
English, today
convert
From Middle English converten. From Middle English converten, from Old French convertir, from Latin converto (“turn around”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA