Conventions

Part of speech: noun

Pronunciation: /kənˈvɛn.ʃənz/

Definitions

1. Accepted practices or social norms that shape conduct in a community
2. Widely followed traditional behaviors that guide social interactions ; official gatherings or assemblies organized for discussion or decision-making
3. Commonly practiced customs that influence how people act in society ; planned events where members of a group meet to deliberate or celebrate

Etymology: "Conventions" is the plural of "convention," and the word's core sense is a gathering: Latin "conveniō" meant "come together, assemble," built from "con-" ("with, together") and "veniō" ("come"). The Latin noun "conventiō" originally meant a meeting or assembling, and only later came to mean an agreement. That shift from people physically coming together to a shared understanding is the key to both of the word's modern senses. English borrowed the word from Middle French "convention" around 1440. The two meanings it carries today follow the same path. A gathering of people who meet to decide things gives us the assembly sense, while the agreement that such gatherings produced, and that people kept following, gives us the sense of unwritten customs that guide behavior. A social rule is, in effect, a settlement reached by a group that once came together to agree on it.

Synonyms: traditions, practices, customs, norms, protocols

Antonyms: innovation, departure, variation, nonconformity, anomaly