Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A person in talk 🤖 A chatbot
conversational partner

conversational partner

2.5
A person who speaks with another person
  • noun
  • /ˌkɒnvərˈseɪʃənəl ˈpɑːrtənər/
translation icon : compañero de conversación
  • Eye contact was poor even when Jamie was not speaking; his gaze tended to roam around the room rather than focus on his conversational partner.

Examples

  • Having a trusted conversational partner made it easier for her to express her thoughts and feelings.

  • The trap we fall into is to treat our conversational partners as someone to be persuaded.

    Blog text (12)

  • And Peter is my conversational partner in today's episode.

  • As individuals, we get to sharpen our views by investigating them with a critical eye and a conversational partner.

    Blog text (12)

  • Looking to men partially as conversational partners indicates a respect for men as human beings with thoughts, interests, and desires.

    Blog text (9)

  • The general flavor here is that what is meant is subject to negotiation, that the conversational partner helps shape the speaker's utterances, and that what a speaker says isn't necessarily adequate and may need fixing.

    Academic text (1998)

  • During the meeting, I appreciated having a supportive conversational partner who shared their insights openly.

  • In language classes, students often practice speaking with a conversational partner to improve their fluency.

Synonyms

interlocutor
vsconversational partner
8 8.3

A person or machine that takes part in a conversation

refers only to a human taking part in a conversation
discussant
vsconversational partner
  • Jargon
1 8.0

A person who gives feedback on presentations at a conference

is used in ordinary conversation rather than formal academic panels

How Engaged

conversational partner
2.5
interlocutor
8 8.3
listener
228 1.0
observer
305 2.8

Surface Forms

conversational partner singular
conversational partners plural

Morphology

conversational + partner

The sense 'an interlocutor you converse with' is directly and compositionally derived from 'conversational' (relating to conversation) + 'partner' (someone you cooperate or interact with). This logic is cross-linguistically common and remains transparent even when extended to non-human agents (e.g., chatbots), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should understand the MWE.

Etymology

Conversational partner comes from the simple image of two people talking like dance partners: one speaks and the other listens and replies. So it means 'a person who is taking part in a conversation'.