CONVENTIONAL
| Pronunciation (US): |  |
Dictionary entry overview: What does conventional mean?
• CONVENTIONAL (adjective)
The adjective CONVENTIONAL has 7 senses:
1. following accepted customs and proprieties
2. conforming with accepted standards
3. (weapons) using energy for propulsion or destruction that is not nuclear energy
4. unimaginative and conformist
5. represented in simplified or symbolic form
6. in accord with or being a tradition or practice accepted from the past
7. rigidly formal or bound by convention
Familiarity information: CONVENTIONAL used as an adjective is common.
Dictionary entry details
• CONVENTIONAL (adjective)
Meaning:
Following accepted customs and proprieties
Context examples:
conventional wisdom / she had strayed from the path of conventional behavior / conventional forms of address
Similar:
accepted; received (widely accepted as true or worthy)
customary (in accordance with convention or custom)
formulaic (characterized by or in accordance with some formula)
stodgy; stuffy (excessively conventional and unimaginative and hence dull)
Also:
formal (being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress))
unoriginal (not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual)
Attribute:
convention; conventionalism; conventionality (orthodoxy as a consequence of being conventional)
Antonym:
unconventional (not conforming to accepted rules or standards)
unconventional (not conventional or conformist)
Meaning:
Conforming with accepted standards
Synonyms:
conventional; established
Context example:
a conventional view of the world
Similar:
orthodox (adhering to what is commonly accepted)
Meaning:
(weapons) using energy for propulsion or destruction that is not nuclear energy
Context examples:
conventional warfare / conventional weapons
Antonym:
nuclear ((weapons) deriving destructive energy from the release of atomic energy)
Meaning:
Unimaginative and conformist
Context examples:
conventional bourgeois lives / conventional attitudes
Similar:
white-bread (of or belonging to or representative of the white middle class)
stereotyped; stereotypic; stereotypical; unimaginative (lacking spontaneity or originality or individuality)
square; straight (rigidly conventional or old-fashioned)
button-down; buttoned-down; conservative (unimaginatively conventional)
Antonym:
unconventional (not conventional or conformist)
Meaning:
Represented in simplified or symbolic form
Synonyms:
schematic; formal; conventional
Similar:
nonrepresentational (of or relating to a style of art in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature)
Domain category:
beaux arts; fine arts (the study and creation of visual works of art)
Meaning:
In accord with or being a tradition or practice accepted from the past
Context examples:
a conventional church wedding with the bride in traditional white / the conventional handshake
Similar:
traditional (consisting of or derived from tradition)
Meaning:
Rigidly formal or bound by convention
Synonyms:
ceremonious; conventional
Context example:
their ceremonious greetings did not seem heartfelt
Similar:
formal (being in accord with established forms and conventions and requirements (as e.g. of formal dress))
