These words are used to refer to the coming together of a number of people. Meeting , gathering , conference and assembly are the most general and informal. As listed, these four words form a gradual progression towards greater specificness and formality. Meeting can aplay to every situation in which two or more people come together, by accident or design, for an encounter, whether momentary or prolonged. It can range in application from trivial or everyday situations to the most portentous or official occasions: the weekly meeting of the Scouts; a summit meeting of the heads of state. Gathering differs from meeting in its specific reference to a group of more than two people; it is like meeting in other respects, including its wideness of application: a chance gathering of people in the bar of the hotel; the annual gathering of the clan. Conference has more formality than either of the foregoing; but, like meeting , it can imply a group of two people as well as of more: a conference with my adviser; the proposed disarmament conference at Geneva. Assembly distinctly implies a gathering of many people and tends to suggest a planned meeting more than an unplanned one: the school’s weekly assembly. It is also sometimes used specifically to designate a house of Parliament, usually the lower house in a Parliament with two houses, to which the formal term Legislative Assembly is often applied.

• The upper house appointed a committee to examine a bill which the Assembly had already passed; The gathering of reporters in the corridors was tense and restless as the committee met for its first conference .

Assemblage , used as an exact synonym for assembly , would sound archaic. Even more important, it is often used currently in pejorative sense: an assemblage of hypocrites and incompetents.

The remaining words of this group are similar in being more specific than the previous words and very much more formal as well. Conclave , congregation and convocation refer primarily to religious assemblies , though they can extend to other kinds of meetings as well. Conclave , most specifically, refers to the gathering of cardinals to elect a pope. Overtones of this use remain in more general applications, including solemnity, secrecy and high purpose: political candidates elected by party conclaves . Congregation is even more restricted in use, referring to the adherents of a religion who attend the same local church: the minister’s congregation . In a narrow sense, the word can designate those actually present at a given service, and, in a broad sense, it can embrace all a church’s parishioners. Convocation implies a meeting that has been called by a higher authority: a convocation of clergymen summoned by their bishop.

Congress , convention and council often refer to governmental or political bodies. On an international scale, a council may include delegates from many different nations. In ecclesiastical terms, the word may refer specifically to a clerical parliament called to decide matters of church doctrine and discipline: the Council of Trent; the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council . An international council , however, is more often a secular agency or body: the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations; the U.N. Security Council . On a national or local level, council usually indicates wither a non-statutory body with specific aims and membership or an elected administrative or legislative unit: the Road Safety Council , the City Council . In either case, it implies a small, select group, whereas congress and convention suggest larger assemblies or gatherings. A council’s meetings may be closed to the public, like those of a conclave and unlike those of a congress or convention . Purely private organizations may also used the word in their titles: the Australian Council of Wool buyers. In all but the ecclesiastical use, a council consists of its members whether they are gathered in a meeting or not.

Congress is narrower in application than council , being most commonly used in a governmental sense, particularly of an elected legislative body: the United States Congress . Another meaning survives, however, in the names of some private associations: the Congress for Cultural Freedom. Congress may refer also to a formal meeting of the representatives of sovereign nations, having as its purpose the settlement of certain questions: the Congress of Vienna. Convention , in its political sense, refer to a scheduled meeting of delegates to pass resolutions and elect leaders (or nominate candidates): the quadrennial Democratic and Republican conventions in the United States. Convention is also often used to refer to a state or national such as a professional association, social club or business group. In this kind of convention , business is conducted, but many of these gatherings are looked on largely as social occasion: arranging the entertainment at the company’s annual dealer convention . While the term convention is typically used of national meetings , international meetings , as of scientists, are more often referred to as congresses : an international congress of geophysicists.