conversate

verb

con·​ver·​sate ˈkän-vər-ˌsāt 

conversated; conversating; conversates

intransitive verb

nonstandard

: to exchange thoughts and opinions in speech : converse sense 1

U.S. Navy, U.S. Marines and Royal Brunei Armed Forces leadership had the opportunity to meet and conversate with one another at a cake cutting ceremony …

—@US7thFleet, on X, formerly Twitter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is conversate a word?

Yes, conversate is definitely a word, in use in English for over 200 years. Many people find its informality grating, and most usage guides will caution against using it in any formal writing.

Is converse or conversate correct?

We define conversate as synonymous with converse; this does not, however, mean that the two words are interchangeable. Converse functions as a noun, adjective, and verb, and conversate is synonymous with only one sense of the verb use of converse ("to exchange thoughts and opinions in speech"). Furthermore, conversate is a nonstandard form, and widely frowned upon in formal writing.

Is conversate slang?

Slang is defined as "an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech." Nonstandard, on the other hand, is "not conforming in pronunciation, grammatical construction, idiom, or word choice to the usage generally characteristic of educated native speakers of a language." While there may be overlap between these two categories, we label conversate as nonstandard rather than slang.

Examples of conversate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The men are also accused of listening to and viewing conversating between employees, selling employee cell phones for profit, as well as creating and deploying a computer program designed to impede the vice president’s use of the network. —Tonya Alanez, BostonGlobe.com, 27 June 2023

For example, imagine a 3D emoji-like figure that can see, speak, and conversate back and forth with you while driving. —Patrick Moorhead, Forbes, 10 Nov. 2021

Word History

Etymology

back-formation from conversation

First Known Use

1811, in the meaning defined above