convert
Verbconverts, converting, converted
Noun pluralconverts
Formsconverts, converting, converted
Pluralconverts
- 1To change something so that it becomes a different substance or product or takes on a different form or state.
Solar panels convert sunlight into usable electricity.
The brewery converts barley and water into beer over several weeks.
Similartransform, change, turn, process, transmute
Note
The core sense, and the one closest to the word's origin: Latin converto, "turn around," by way of Old French convertir. The usual pattern is convert X into Y, as with water into steam or carbon dioxide into carbohydrates. It reaches past matter too. Milton's Samson Agonistes (1671) has sorrow converted "nigh to joy," with to standing where modern English would put into.
- 2To adapt something so that it serves a different use, function, or purpose.
The city plans to convert the disused warehouse into affordable apartments.
They converted the barn into a wedding venue last summer.
Similarturn, transform, adapt, change, remodel
Note
Where the change-of-substance sense alters what a thing is, here only its job changes: a garden becomes a tennis court, a barn becomes a venue. The past participle works well as an adjective for the result. Robert W. Chambers' The Younger Set (1907) compares a trim matron to "a converted yacht cleared for action," a vessel given a new purpose.
- 3
- 4To bring someone to accept a particular religion, faith, ideology, or belief, usually in place of a former one.
The traveling preacher set out to convert everyone in the valley.
The movement converted thousands of young followers within a decade.
Similarproselytize, evangelize, persuade, win
Note
The transitive half of a pair. Here someone else does the persuading, and the person persuaded is the object, as in they converted her to Roman Catholicism, with to introducing the faith. When believers change on their own account, English uses the intransitive sense instead: we've converted to Methodism. Prescott's History of the Reign of Philip the Second shows the bare form: no attempt was made to convert the Moslems.
- 5To undergo a change in one's own religion, faith, or belief.
Many people convert only after years of quiet reflection.
He converted shortly after marrying into the family.
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- 9To express one unit of measurement in terms of another, often using a formula that relates the two.
The textbook shows how to convert degrees Fahrenheit into Celsius.
She converted the pressure readings from pascals into atmospheres.
Note
Here the object is the unit itself, not a single reading. The question is how one unit stands to another, and the answer is a formula that works for every quantity at once. That sets it apart from converting a particular amount, which applies such a rule to one figure. Both name the target unit with into: feet into meters, Fahrenheit into Celsius.
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- 11A person who has changed from being one thing into being another.
A late convert from city life, he settled happily into the countryside.
The former hardliner became an unlikely convert to compromise.
Note
The widest use of the noun, with no faith involved. James George Frazer's The Golden Bough calls a man temporarily turned into a beast "the convert in his animal shape." The word names anyone who has passed from one state to another, literally as well as figuratively. That is a long way from a convert to a religion, though both share the same grammar.
- 12To complete the action an online advertisement aims to prompt, such as a purchase or a sign-up.
Visitors rarely convert without a clear call to action on the page.
The campaign drove plenty of traffic, but few users converted.
Note
A marketing word for the moment a visitor stops browsing and acts by buying, signing up or registering. The subject is the user, and there is no object: "whether the user converts or not." The matching noun, conversion, is what campaigns count. An advertiser may pay for every click whether or not the visitor converts.
- 13To add extra points to the score immediately after a touchdown, by kicking or by a short scoring play.
The kicker converted the extra point with room to spare.
If they convert here, they take the lead with under a minute left.
Note
American football's version follows a touchdown, and the object is often the attempt itself. Jon Scott and Tommy Gallagher (2024) describe "a 2-point conversion that the Bills converted." Teams add one point with a kick through the uprights or two with a play from scrimmage. Either way, the verb treats the touchdown as a chance not yet fully cashed in.
- 14To score additional points after a try by kicking the ball between the posts and over the crossbar in rugby.
The fly-half converted from a difficult angle near the touchline.
They scored the try but could not convert in the wind.
Note
Rugby's use: the try earns the chance, and the kick turns it into two extra points. The kick is taken in line with where the try was grounded, so a try near the touchline leaves a hard angle. The verb works with or without an object. You can convert the try, or simply say "Flood converted." Canadian football keeps a noun of its own for the matching play.
- 15To put the ball into the net, especially when taking a penalty kick.
The striker converted the penalty in the final minute of the match.
Under pressure, she rarely fails to convert.
Similarscore
Oppositemiss
Note
In soccer the chance comes first, and the verb records that it was taken. A striker converts a penalty, or converts "from close range" or "from 12 yards," with from naming where the shot was struck. Without an object it simply means the attempt went in: "Hinton, inevitably, converted the penalty" could as well end at converted.
- 16To turn a material or positional advantage into a win, especially in chess.
He converted his extra pawn into a winning endgame.
Even a small edge can be hard to convert against careful defense.
Note
In chess, the object is the advantage itself, such as an extra pawn or an active king. Converting it means turning that edge into a win, usually in the endgame and by precise technique. Andrew Soltis writes that Marshall won a pawn but "couldn't convert it." Daniel Naroditsky warns against trying to convert an advantage that no longer exists.
- 17To increase one's individual score, especially turning a fifty into a century or a century into a double or triple century.
He converted his fifty into a commanding century before lunch.
Batters who regularly convert solid starts into big scores win matches.
Similarturn
Note
Cricket's version measures what a batter makes of a good start: a fifty converted into a century, a century into a double. The construction is convert X into Y, with the milestones as objects. The BBC's "Gillespie hails 'fairytale' knock" (2006) has Gillespie promising a nude lap of the ground if he converted his century into a double.
- 18In Canadian football, a one-point kick made after a touchdown, equivalent to a conversion in rugby.
The kicker added the convert to stretch the lead to eight.
Two missed converts ended up costing them the game.
Similarconversion
Note
Canadian football's noun for the play after a touchdown. Rugby speaks of a conversion and American football of the extra point, but Canadian usage says the convert, plural converts. It is the one use where the noun names a scoring play rather than a person.
- 19In bowling, to knock down all remaining pins with the second ball of a frame, scoring a spare.
He converted in the tenth frame to seal the victory.
Good bowlers convert far more often than they leave pins standing.
Note
Ten-pin bowling uses it without an object. A bowler converts when the second ball of the frame clears every pin the first one left standing. The frame is then recorded as a spare rather than an open frame, so a bowler's skill at converting shows up directly in the spares column.
- 20To wrongfully take or use another's property as one's own, committing the common law tort of conversion.
The defendant converted the vehicle by selling it without the owner's consent.
An agent who chooses to convert entrusted money commits the tort.
Similarmisappropriate, embezzle
Note
Law borrows the word for the tort of conversion, where nothing about the property changes except who treats it as theirs. It means exercising dominion over another's property in a way inconsistent with the owner's rights, and it can leave the wrongdoer liable for the property's full value. Money can be converted as readily as goods: a 1985 grand jury charged that Terrigno "knowingly converted" federal funds meant for the poor and homeless.
- 21To recast one proposition into another in which the original subject becomes the predicate of the new statement.
Logicians convert the proposition to test whether the inference still holds.
He converted the statement 'All dogs are animals' and examined the result.
Note
Traditional logic swaps subject and predicate and asks whether the proposition still holds. The swap keeps truth for E and I propositions (no S is P, some S is P). A propositions need limitation, however. "All dogs are animals" does not yield "All animals are dogs," only "Some animals are dogs." The operation itself is called conversion.
- 22To render a text or speech from one language into another; to translate.
The scholar converted the Greek treatise into Latin for his patrons.
Clerks were paid to convert foreign dispatches into the king's tongue.
Note
An obsolete word for translation, close to the Latin image of turning: a story is turned from one tongue into another. Jonson's Masque of Queens (1609) praises a tale "which … Catullus more elegantly converted." In modern prose, translate or render is the safe choice. The older word would now read as a change of substance or belief.
- 23To cause something to turn, or to turn it toward a different direction or position.
O, which way shall I first convert myself?
1600, Ben Jonson, “Cynthias Reuels, or The Fountayne of Selfe-Loue.”Note
Literal turning, the image behind the Latin converto and behind the everyday sense, is now obsolete. Ben Jonson's Cynthia's Revels (1600) uses it reflexively: "which way shall I first convert myself?" The speaker is unsure which way to face. In early verse, read it as turn. In modern writing it would be mistaken for a change of form or faith.
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Origin
This word comes from Middle English converten, from Old French convertir, which traces back to Latin converto, meaning "turn around."