symposium

See also: Symposium

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin symposium, from Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion, “drinking party”) from συμπίνω (sumpínō, “drink together”) συν- (sun-, “together-”) + πίνω (pínō, “drink”).

Pronunciation

• (US, CA) IPA^(key): /sɪmˈpoʊziəm/
• (GB) IPA^(key): /sɪmˈpəʊziəm/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Noun

symposium (plural symposiums or symposia)

1. A conference or other meeting for discussion of a topic, especially one in which the participants make presentations.
2. A drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion.

   Alternative form: symposion

3. A collection of essays, articles or papers on a particular subject by a number of contributors.
   • 1960 January, “New reading on railways”, in Trains Illustrated, page 26:

     THE CONCISE ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF WORLD RAILWAY LOCOMOTIVES. Edited by P. Ransome-Wallis. Hutchinson. 50s. [...] The work is a symposium by writers who are mostly specialists in the topics about which they write.

Related terms

• symposiast
• sympotic

Translations

a conference or other meeting for discussion of a topic, especially one in which the participants make presentations

• Albanian: simpozium (sq) m
• Arabic: سِمْبُوزِيُوم m (simbūziyūm), نَدْوَة f (nadwa)
• Armenian: սիմպոզիում (hy) (simpozium)
• Azerbaijani: simpozium
• Belarusian: сімпо́зіум m (simpózium)
• Bulgarian: симпо́зиум m (simpózium)
• Burmese: နှီးနှောဖလှယ်ပွဲ (my) (hni:hnau:hpa.hlai-pwai:)
• Catalan: simpòsium m, simposi (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 討論會／讨论会 (zh) (tǎolùnhuì), 座談會／座谈会 (zh) (zuòtánhuì), 研討會／研讨会 (zh) (yántǎohuì)

• Czech: sympozium n
• Danish: symposium (da) n
• Dutch: symposium (nl) n
• Esperanto: simpozio
• Estonian: sümpoosion
• Finnish: symposiumi (fi), symposium (fi), esitelmäkokous
• French: symposium (fr) m
• Georgian: სიმპოზიუმი (simṗoziumi)
• German: Fachtagung f, Symposium (de) n, Symposion (de) n
• Greek: συμπόσιο (el) n (sympósio)

  Ancient Greek: σῠμπόσῐον n (sumpósion)

• Hindi: संगोष्ठी (hi) f (saṅgoṣṭhī), गोष्ठी (hi) f (goṣṭhī)
• Hungarian: szimpózium (hu)
• Italian: simposio (it) m, convegno (it) m
• Japanese: シンポジウム (ja) (shinpojiumu)
• Kazakh: симпозиум (simpozium)
• Khmer: សន្និសិទ្ធនៃអ្នកជំនាញខាងអ្វីមួយ (sa nni setth nei anak chomneanh khang aveimuoy)
• Korean: 심포지엄 (ko) (simpojieom)
• Kyrgyz: симпозиум (simpozium)
• Latvian: simpozijs m
• Lithuanian: simpoziumas (lt) m
• Macedonian: симпозиум m (simpozium)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: symposium n

• Persian: سمپوزیوم (fa) (sampozyum)
• Polish: sympozjum (pl) n
• Portuguese: simpósio (pt) m
• Romanian: simpozion (ro) n
• Russian: симпо́зиум (ru) m (simpózium)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: симпозијум m, сѝмпо̄зӣј m (Croatia)

  Roman: simpozijum m, sìmpōzīj (sh) m (Croatia)

• Slovak: sympózium n
• Slovene: simpozij m
• Spanish: simposio (es)
• Swahili: kongamano (sw)
• Swedish: symposium (sv) n
• Tagalog: sampaksaan
• Tajik: симпозиум (simpozium)
• Turkish: bilgi şöleni (tr), sempozyum (tr)
• Ukrainian: симпо́зіум m (sympózium)
• Uzbek: simpozium (uz)
• Vietnamese: hội nghị chuyên đề
• Volapük: spikädem (vo)
• Welsh: trafodaeth (cy) f

a drinking party in Ancient Greece, especially one with intellectual discussion

• Bulgarian: пиршество (bg) n (piršestvo)
• German: Symposion (de) n
• Greek: συμπόσιο (el) n (sympósio)

  Ancient Greek: σῠμπόσῐον n (sumpósion)

• Khmer: សីុំពូស៊ីអូម (sumpousiom)
• Russian: симпо́сий m (simpósij)
• Ukrainian: симпо́сій m (sympósij)

a collection of essays, articles or papers on a particular subject by a number of contributors

• Bulgarian: симпозиум n (simpozium)
• German: Symposium (de) n
• Greek: συμπόσιο (el) n (sympósio)

  Ancient Greek: συμπόσιον n (sumpósion)

• Khmer: សន្និសីទ (km) (sannisit)
• Russian: симпозиум (ru) m (simpozium)
• Ukrainian: симпозіум m (sympozium)

See also

• symposium on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Symposium in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
• “symposium”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Dutch

Etymology

From Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion, “drinking party”) from συμπίνω (sumpínō, “drink together”) συν- (sun-, “together-”) + πίνω (pínō, “drink”).

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

• Hyphenation: sym‧po‧si‧um

Noun

symposium n (plural symposia or symposiums, diminutive symposiumpje n)

1. symposium

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛ̃.po.zjɔm/, /sɛ̃.pɔ.zjɔm/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

symposium m (plural symposiums)

1. symposium

   Synonym: colloque

Further reading

• “symposium”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /symˈpo.si.um/, [s̠ʏmˈpɔs̠iʊ̃ˑ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /simˈpo.si.um/, [simˈpɔːs̬ium]

Noun

symposium n (genitive symposiī or symposī); second declension

1. symposium

Declension

Second-declension noun (neuter).

Case	Singular	Plural
Nominative	symposium	symposia
Genitive	symposiī symposī1	symposiōrum
Dative	symposiō	symposiīs
Accusative	symposium	symposia
Ablative	symposiō	symposiīs
Vocative	symposium	symposia

¹Found in older Latin (until the Augustan Age).

References

• “symposium”, in Harry Thurston Peck, editor (1898), Harper's Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, New York: Harper & Brothers
• “symposium”, in William Smith et al., editor (1890), A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, London: William Wayte. G. E. Marindin

Norwegian Bokmål

Noun

symposium n (definite singular symposiet, indefinite plural symposier, definite plural symposia or symposiene)

1. symposium

Norwegian Nynorsk

Noun

symposium n (definite singular symposiet, indefinite plural symposium, definite plural symposia)

1. symposium

Swedish

Etymology

Borrowed from Ancient Greek συμπόσιον (sumpósion).

Noun

symposium n

1. symposium

Declension

Declension of symposium

		nominative	genitive
singular	indefinite	symposium	symposiums
	definite	symposiet	symposiets
plural	indefinite	symposier	symposiers
	definite	symposierna	symposiernas

Further reading

• symposium in Svenska Akademiens ordböcker