Other forms: conveyed, conveys, conveying
To convey something is to get it across to another person — a meaning, a feeling, a warning. A photograph that conveys how cold it was, a shrug that conveys more than a whole sentence would.
It keeps a plain physical sense as well: pipes convey water, a belt conveys luggage through the scanner, and that is why the machine is a conveyor. Lawyers use it for property, where to convey a house is to transfer its ownership, and the paperwork is called conveyancing. It always needs the thing carried, and it takes TO for the person: convey my thanks to your mother. In register it sits a step above say and tell — in conversation you get an idea across, on paper you convey it.
1verbconveyTo make an idea or feeling known to someone.~82%
“Her short letter conveyed how tired she had become.”
synonyms: communicate, express
2verbcarryTo carry or move something from one place to another.~6%
“A pipeline conveys the gas across the border.”
3verbtransferTo transfer legal ownership of property to someone.~12%
“The solicitor will convey the cottage to the new owners in May.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 17 sentences found in the wild and placed 17 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Also accepted in games: communicate
Convey came from Old French conveier, from a Vulgar Latin verb built on via, the Latin word for road or way. To convey was to go along the road with something, to see it safely there. Convoy is the very same word borrowed later, still travelling with an escort.
Latin
via — way
Vulgar Latin
*convio
Old French
conveier
Middle English
conveien
English, today
convey
From Middle English conveien, from Old French conveier (French convoyer), from Vulgar Latin convio, from Classical Latin via (“way”). Compare convoy.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA