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# convention

«convention» in Mova's school dictionary: **The usual or accepted way of doing something; a custom or…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 3 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

noun (a convention, conventions; convention, uncountable)

### meaning for a pupil

1) The usual or accepted way of doing something; a custom or rule people follow. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#m1)

2) A large meeting of people with the same interest or job (a comic convention). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#m2)

3) An official agreement between countries (the Geneva Convention). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#m3)

4) (maths, writing) A standard rule everyone agrees to use, such as writing numbers left to right. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In maths: conventions such as the order of operations (BODMAS/BIDMAS/PEMDAS) and labelling axes x and y. In English: writing conventions like capital letters and full stops. In everyday life: comic conventions, conventions of politeness. Phrases: by convention, break with convention.

### examples

- By convention, we write the x-axis across the page. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x1)
- Spelling and punctuation are writing conventions. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x2)
- We dressed up for the comic convention. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x3)
- Shaking hands is a convention in many countries. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x4)
- The Geneva Convention protects prisoners of war. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x5)
- The writer broke with convention and used no capital letters. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x6)
- The possibility of the introduction of an archaic formula which had become a convention of folk-telling cannot be left out of account. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/#x7)

### note

Adjective: conventional (usual, ordinary). In maths, conventions are agreed rules, not proven facts; following them means everyone gets the same answer.

### In the corpora

- [Henri Dunant helped start the Red Cross in 1863, and in 1864 countries signed the first Geneva Convention to protect wounded soldiers.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/68-rules-courts-police-taxes-and-armies-through-time/18/)
- [In the 1800s children worked in mines and mills; in 1989 the UN agreed the Convention on the Rights of the Child.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/69-rights-won-step-by-step-freedom-votes-and-children-s-rights/11/)
- [The 1951 Refugee Convention, an international agreement, says countries must not send refugees back to danger.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/politics/30-refugees-aid-and-sanctions-how-the-world-helps-and-pushes/11/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «convention» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/C/convention/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.