Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of converting.
  • noun The state of being converted.
  • noun A change in which one adopts a new religion, faith, or belief.
  • noun Something that is changed from one use, function, or purpose to another.
  • noun Law The unlawful appropriation of another's property.
  • noun The exchange of one type of security or currency for another.
  • noun Logic The interchange of the subject and predicate of a proposition.
  • noun Football An extra point or points scored after a touchdown, as by kicking the ball through the uprights or by advancing the ball into the end zone from the two-yard line or a similar short distance.
  • noun Psychiatry A psychological defense mechanism by which repressed ideas, conflicts, or impulses are manifested by various bodily symptoms, such as paralysis or sensory deficits, that have no physical cause.
  • noun The expression of a quantity in alternative units, as of length or weight.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Substitution of or exchange for something else, especially of one kind of property for another; specifically, the change of an issue of public securities, of bonds, debentures, stocks, shares, etc., into another of different character or with an altered (generally reduced) rate of interest. Also attributively: as, conversion scheme, conversion operation, etc.
  • noun In ship-building, the selection, laying out, and working of plank and timber so as to have the least possible waste.
  • noun In forestry, a change from one system of forest management to another, as from the sprout system to the seed system.
  • noun In steel manuf., the process of changing iron into steel, especially by the cementation process. See cementation.
  • noun In general, a turning or changing from one State or form to another; transmutation; transformation: sometimes implying total loss of identity: as, a conversion of water into ice, or of food into chyle or blood; the conversion of a thing from its original purpose to another; the conversion of land into money.
  • noun Specifically In logic, that immediate. inference which transforms a proposition into another whose subject-term is the predicate-term, and whose predicate-term the subject-term, of the former.
  • noun where the vowels of feci, eva, astro, show the kinds of propositions which can be converted in the three ways. (See A, 2 .) A diminute conversion is a conversion of a proposition such that the consequent asserts less than the antecedent: as, All lawyers are honest, and therefore some honest men are lawyers. An improper or reductive conversion is a conversion per accidens or by contraposition. A universal conversion is an inference by conversion whose conclusion is a universal proposition; a partial conversion, one whose conclusion is a particular proposition. [The Latin conversio was first used in this sense by Appuleius to translate Aristotle's ἀντιστροφ/η.]
  • noun In theology, a radical and complete change, sudden or gradual, in the spirit, purpose, and direction of the life, from one of self-seeking and enmity toward God to one of love toward God and man.
  • noun Change from one religion to another, or from one side or party to another, especially from one that is regarded as false to one that is regarded as true.
  • noun Milit.: A change of front, as of a body of troops attacked in flank. The application of condemned stores to uses other than that originally intended.
  • noun In ordnance, the alteration of a smooth-bore gun into a rifled gun by inserting a lining-tube of wrought-iron or steel.
  • noun In law: An unauthorized assumption and exercise of the right of ownership over personal property belonging to another in hostility to his rights; an act of dominion over the personal property of another inconsistent with his rights; unauthorized appropriation. A change from realty into personalty, or vice versa. See equitable conversion, under equitable.
  • noun Nautical, the reduction of a vessel by one deck, so as to convert a line-of-battle ship into a frigate, or a crank three-decker into a good two-decker, or a serviceable vessel into a hulk.
  • noun In dyeing. See extract.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of turning or changing from one state or condition to another, or the state of being changed; transmutation; change.
  • noun The act of changing one's views or course, as in passing from one side, party, or from of religion to another; also, the state of being so changed.
  • noun (Law) An appropriation of, and dealing with the property of another as if it were one's own, without right.
  • noun (Logic) The act of interchanging the terms of a proposition, as by putting the subject in the place of the predicate, or the contrary.
  • noun (Math.) A change or reduction of the form or value of a proposition.
  • noun A change of front, as a body of troops attacked in the flank.
  • noun A change of character or use, as of smoothbore guns into rifles.
  • noun (Theol.) A spiritual and moral change attending a change of belief with conviction; a change of heart; a change from the service of the world to the service of God; a change of the ruling disposition of the soul, involving a transformation of the outward life.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act of having converted something or someone.
  • noun chemistry A chemical reaction wherein a substrate is transformed into a product.
  • noun rugby A free-kick, after scoring a try, worth two points.
  • noun American football An extra point scored by kicking a field goal after scoring a touchdown.
  • noun marketing An online advertising performance metric representing a visitor performing whatever the intended result of an ad is defined to be.
  • noun law Under the common law, the tort of the taking of someone's personal property with intent to permanently deprive them of it, or damaging property to the extent that the owner is deprived of the utility of that property, thus making the tortfeasor liable for the entire value of the property.
  • noun linguistics The process whereby a new word is created without changing the form, often by allowing the word to function as a new part of speech.
  • noun obsolete The act of turning round; revolution; rotation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun interchange of subject and predicate of a proposition
  • noun an event that results in a transformation
  • noun the act of changing from one use or function or purpose to another
  • noun a successful free throw or try for point after a touchdown
  • noun a change of religion
  • noun a change in the units or form of an expression:
  • noun act of exchanging one type of money or security for another
  • noun a spiritual enlightenment causing a person to lead a new life

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English conversioun, religious conversion, from Old French conversion, from Latin conversiō, conversiōn-, a turning around, from conversus, past participle of convertere, to turn around; see convert.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English, from Anglo-Norman conversion, from Latin conversio, from convertere.

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