HomeServicesBlogDictionariesContactSpanish Course
← Back to search

Meaning of discourse | Babel Free

Noun masculine CEFR C2 Specialized
ˈdɪs.kɔːs

Definitions

  1. Verbal exchange, conversation.
    archaic, uncountable
  2. Expression in words, either speech or writing.
    uncountable
  3. speech
  4. A conversation.
    countable
  5. first-person singular present indicative of discursar
  6. A formal lengthy exposition of some subject, either spoken or written.
    countable
  7. Any rational expression, reason.
    countable
  8. An institutionalized way of thinking, a social boundary defining what can be said about a specific topic (after Michel Foucault).
    countable
  9. Lengthy, often heated debate over controversial subject matter, particularly within fandom and activist spaces. Sometimes rendered as a proper noun with the definite article (i.e. "the Discourse").
    Internet, uncountable
  10. Dealing; transaction.
    countable, obsolete, uncountable

Equivalents

Examples

“UUho when he ſhal embrace you in his arms UUil tell how many thouſand men he ſlew. And when you looke for amorous diſcourſe, Will rattle foorth his facts of war and blood: […]”
“Two or three of the gentlemen sat near him, and I caught at times scraps of their conversation across the room. At first I could not make much sense of what I heard; for the discourse of Louisa Eshton and Mary Ingram, who sat nearer to me, confused the fragmentary sentences that reached me at intervals.”
“Drawings and pictures are more than mere ornaments in scientific discourse. Blackboard sketches, geological maps, diagrams of molecular structure, astronomical photographs, MRI images, the many varieties of statistical charts and graphs: These pictorial devices are indispensable tools for presenting evidence, for explaining a theory, for telling a story.”
“It ſeems, the Minds of theſe People are ſo taken up with intenſe Speculations, that they neither can ſpeak, nor attend to the Diſcourſes of others, without being rouzed by ſome external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which reaſon, thoſe Perſons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domeſticks, nor ever walk abroad or make Viſits without him.”
“The preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.”
“Sure he that made us with such large discourse, / Looking before and after, gave us not / That capability and godlike reason / To rust in us unused.”
“difficult, strange, and harsh to the discourses of natural reason”
“Furthermore, it should be recalled from the previous chapter that criminological discourse of the 1930s deemed every woman a potential criminal, implicitly including the domestic woman.”
“But equally important to the emergence of uniquely African-American queer discourses is the refusal of African-American movements for liberation to address adequately issues of sexual orientation and gender identity.”
“Brown University's Friday Night Jews (FNJ) [...] began as an informal Shabbat dinner gathering in 2016, as a space for Jewish students who were feeling fed up with Hillel’s limitations regarding Israel/Palestine discourse, after the Brown/RISD Hillel rescinded sponsorship of a film screening by the Israeli nonprofit Zochrot, an organization that educates Jewish Israelis about the Nakba.”
“We all know — or know now — the Internet meme known as “The Discourse,” which became popular on the social media site Tumblr in April of last year.”
“Nobody will ever know if Gene Roddenberry would hate DS9 had he lived to see it, but the controversy was patient zero for the arguments that define modern Star Trek discourse.”
“...needless to say, the small-scale nature of these controversies provides a window into who the true 'snowflakes' are when it comes to Doctor Who discourse.”
“Good Captain Bessus, tell us the discourse / Betwixt Tigranes and our king, and how / We got the victory.”

CEFR level

C2
Mastery
This word is part of the CEFR C2 vocabulary — mastery level.
See all C2 English words →

See also

Learn this word in context

See discourse used in real conversations inside our free language course.

Start Free Course

Know this word better than we do? Language is a living thing — help us keep it growing. Collaborate with Babel Free