Meanings
present singular third person convenes · participle present convening · participle past convened · past convened
- intransitiveTo come together; to meet; to unite.
In short-sighted men […] the rays converge and convene in the eyes before they come at the bottom.
1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC - intransitiveTo come together, as in one body or for a public purpose; to meet; to assemble.
The Parliament of Scotland now convened.
1670, Richard Baker, A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Time of the Romans Government unto the Death of King James2 more examples
Faint, underneath, the household fowls convene.
a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLCThe solicitor, a Mr. Gilmer, was not well known to us. He was from Abbottsville; we saw him only when court convened, and that rarely, for court was of no special interest to Jem and me.
1960 July 11, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC - transitiveTo cause to assemble; to call together; to convoke; to summon.
- transitiveTo summon judicially to meet or appear.
- transitiveTo make a convention; to declare a rule by convention.
To forestall any problems, we convened on the rule that all the database records would avoid containing certain literal strings.
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*gʷm̥yéti
- Latinconvenio, convenire“come together”
- Middle Frenchconvenir
- Englishconvene
Borrowed from Middle French convenir, from Latin convenio, convenire (“come together”), from con- (“with, together”) + veniō (“come”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷm̥yéti, from the root *gʷem-.
More words from Middle French, Latin, Proto-Indo-European
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic اِجْتَمَعَ
- اِجْتَمَعَ (ijtamaʕa)to come together, to meet, to unite
Bulgarian събирам се, срещам се
- събирам се (săbiram se)to come together, to meet, to unite
- срещам се (sreštam se)to come together, to meet, to unite
- събирам се (săbiram se)to come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- свиквам (svikvam)to cause to assemble, to call together
- призовавам (prizovavam)to summon judicially to meet or appear
Chinese Mandarin 集合, 集合
- 集合 (jíhé)to come together, to meet, to unite
- 集合 (jíhé)to come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- 装配 (zhuāngpèi)to come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- 召集 (zhàojí)to cause to assemble, to call together
- 召開 /召开 (zhàokāi)to cause to assemble, to call together
- 傳訊 /传讯 (chuánxùn)to summon judicially to meet or appear
Czech sejít se, sejít se
- sejít seto come together, to meet, to unite
- sejít seto come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- svolatto cause to assemble, to call together
- předvolatto summon judicially to meet or appear
Dutch samenkomen, samenkomen
- samenkomento come together, to meet, to unite
- samenkomento come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- samenroepento cause to assemble, to call together
- dagvaardento summon judicially to meet or appear
Esperanto kunvoki, kunvenigi
- kunvokito cause to assemble, to call together
- kunvenigito cause to assemble, to call together
German zusammenkommen, zusammentreten
- zusammenkommento come together, to meet, to unite
- zusammentretento come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- sich versammelnto come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- einberufento cause to assemble, to call together
- zusammenrufento cause to assemble, to call together
- versammelnto cause to assemble, to call together
- einberufento summon judicially to meet or appear
- vorladento summon judicially to meet or appear
Irish comhghairm
- comhghairmto cause to assemble, to call together
Latin conveniō, conveniō
- conveniōto come together, to meet, to unite
- conveniōto come together as in one body or for a public purpose
Māori paihere, paihere
- paihereto come together, to meet, to unite
- paihereto cause to assemble, to call together
Norwegian Bokmål sammenkalle
- sammenkalleto cause to assemble, to call together
Polish zwołać, zwoływać
- zwołaćto cause to assemble, to call together
- zwoływaćto cause to assemble, to call together
Portuguese unir
- unirto come together, to meet, to unite
Russian собира́ться, собира́ться
- собира́ться (sobirátʹsja)to come together, to meet, to unite
- собира́ться (sobirátʹsja)to come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- сходи́ться (sxodítʹsja)to come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- созыва́ть (sozyvátʹ)to cause to assemble, to call together
- собира́ть (sobirátʹ)to cause to assemble, to call together
- вызыва́ть (vyzyvátʹ)to summon judicially to meet or appear
Spanish convenir, juntarse
- convenirto come together, to meet, to unite
- juntarseto come together, to meet, to unite
- reunirseto come together, to meet, to unite
- constituirseto come together as in one body or for a public purpose
- reunirto cause to assemble, to call together
Swedish sammanträda
- sammanträdato come together as in one body or for a public purpose
Ukrainian склика́ти, скли́кати
- склика́ти (sklykáty)to cause to assemble, to call together
- скли́кати (sklýkaty)to cause to assemble, to call together
Cite this entry
convene. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/convene
“convene.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/convene. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “convene,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/convene.
Source: convene on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.