conclave

/ˌkɑnˈkleɪv/
IPA guide

Other forms: conclaves

A private or secret meeting is a conclave. What are some reasons you might hold a conclave? You might be convening the executive committee on the board of a company, or you might be planning a surprise party.

In Catholicism, a conclave is specifically a meeting of Roman Catholic cardinals who are locked in a room in seclusion when they need to choose a new pope. The word conclave comes from the Latin and originally meant "a locked room." The school's band boosters held a conclave to discuss the harsh district budget cuts and how those cuts might affect all the other music programs at school.

Definitions of conclave
  1. noun
    a confidential or secret meeting
    see moresee less
    type of:
    group meeting, meeting
    a formally arranged gathering
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Word Family

Vocabulary lists containing conclave

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Scythe
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Citra and Rowan live in a society in which all natural causes of death have been eliminated. The two teenagers are recruited to be "scythes," people who administer death in order to cull the population.

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