colloquium

/kəˈloʊkwiəm/

Other forms: colloquia; colloquiums

A colloquium is an academic conference or meeting. At a colloquium, you’ll spend a couple of days listening to lectures with a group of people who all know a lot about one particular subject.

The root of colloquium is the Latin loqui, meaning “to talk, ” which is what people tend to do at a conference. If you’re attending a colloquium on hummingbirds, you’re going to meet a lot of biologists who talk about hummingbirds. If you’re giving a lecture at the same colloquium, you’d better hope you know a lot about hummingbirds or you might get run out of the conference!

Definitions of colloquium

1. noun

   an academic meeting or seminar usually led by a different lecturer and on a different topic at each meeting
   types:

   research colloquium

   a colloquium at which the results of (scientific) research are reported

   type of:

   conference

   a prearranged meeting for consultation or exchange of information or discussion (especially one with a formal agenda)
2. noun

   an address to an academic meeting or seminar
   type of:

   address, speech

   the act of delivering a formal spoken communication to an audience