chat 1 of 2

noun

Definition of chatnext
1
as in talk
friendly, informal conversation or an instance of this short chats between parents and teachers during the school's open house

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance
2
as in conversation
talking or a talk between two or more people a fireside chat between two of America's foremost men of letters

Synonyms & Similar Words

chat

2 of 2

verb

ˈchat How to pronounce chat (audio)
1
as in to talk
to engage in casual or rambling conversation the coffeehouse became the favored place to meet friends and chat for hours

Synonyms & Similar Words
2
as in to chatter
to speak rapidly, inarticulately, and usually unintelligibly lost in his own world, the toddler chatted happily for hours

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of chat
Noun
Bears guard Stan Jones, left, named professional player of the year, chats with Mike Ditka, College All-Stars co-captain. — Bob Brody, Chicago Tribune, 13 Oct. 2026 Check out THR‘s Screen Talks coverage from this year’s London Film Festival and chats with Andrew Scott, John Malkovich, Javier Bardem, Naomi Ackie, Ava DuVernay, Cynthia Erivo, Sofia Coppola and Danny Boyle. — Lily Ford, HollywoodReporter, 12 Oct. 2026
Verb
The challenge will include multiple phases, including a concept design, concept refinement after chatting with reviewers, and then a final selection. — Elizabeth Howell, Space.com, 12 Oct. 2026 In another scene, a group of climbers are chatting together next to a cluster of tents. — Helen Regan, CNN Money, 10 Oct. 2026 See All Example Sentences for chat
Recent Examples of Synonyms for chat
  1. talk
  2. conversation
  3. converse
  4. chatter
  5. gossip
  6. discussion
  7. shout
  8. chitchat
Noun
  • Banijay founder and chairman Stephane Courbit later met with Zucker in New York, though full merger talks didn’t begin until the following year, once RedBird IMI had ended talks with ITV over ITV Studios.
    — Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Colombia’s government has canceled peace talks with the nation’s remaining rebel groups, as de la Espriella takes a hard line on crime.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of talk
Noun
  • Brian Romick, the president of Democratic Majority for Israel, put out an issue framework last month in an attempt to move the conversation from the language to the actual policy.
    — David Weigel, semafor.com, 19 Oct. 2026
  • Miller's attempt to recast the conversation about his divorce echoed efforts by other candidates who are struggling to overcome concerns about their character.
    — Lara Korte The Washington Post, Arkansas Online, 18 Oct. 2026
Definition of conversation
Verb
  • Mexican security forces, both military and police, were also observed conversing with Border Patrol agents over the international boundary.
    — Ryan Devereaux, ProPublica, 10 Oct. 2026
  • This was already noticed long before the emergence of AI chatbots with the power to converse.
    — Pascal Vrticka, Scientific American, 4 Oct. 2026
Definition of converse
Verb
  • In the novel, likewise, the narrator assumes an almost Homeric guise, comparing current harbor gossip to chatter from the Phoenician, Cretan, Greek, and Roman eras.
    — Alex Ross, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Suspended in a pool, holding onto an oxygen mask as her teeth chattered, Julia Wolf began to seriously consider the possibility of hypothermia.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of chatter
Noun
  • View this post on Instagram Because of the news of her divorce, the post trickled through the celebrity gossip outlets, and that coverage in turn propagated the post through Google search.
    — Mia Sato, The Verge, 15 Oct. 2026
  • His son sees that as a kind of divine verdict on decades of gossip about the pair.
    — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of gossip
Noun
  • No discussion of nuclear deterrence should ever lose sight of the human lives behind those words.
    — Halla Tómasdóttir, Time, 16 Oct. 2026
  • Those discussions reveal how employees think and give managers a chance to coach reasoning, not just review the final deliverable.
    — Samir Dutta, Forbes.com, 16 Oct. 2026
Definition of discussion
Verb
  • Lil’ Randy shouts repeatedly as he is hauled off, a great ending to a pretty great episode.
    — Kevin Dolak, HollywoodReporter, 15 Oct. 2026
  • The drunk-and-disorderly charge is linked to a December incident, in which Minton is accused of shouting and cursing at patrons of a tattoo studio in Hickory, court records show.
    — Mark Price, Charlotte Observer, 14 Oct. 2026
Definition of shout
Noun
  • In the halls of NYC’s immigration court, the casual chitchat of ICE agents waiting to arrest their unsuspecting targets stands in stark contrast to the horrors these detainees are likely to face.
    — Matthew Carey, Deadline, 14 Oct. 2026
  • Their chitchat is strained by the knowledge that the exchange is transactional.
    — E. Tammy Kim, New Yorker, 12 Oct. 2026
Definition of chitchat

Phrases Containing chat

Browse Nearby Words

chastity
chat
château
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Chat.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/chat. Accessed 20 Oct. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on chat

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about chat

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

Is it 'nerve-racking' or 'nerve-wracking'?

What's the difference between 'fascism' and 'socialism'?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

7 Words for Bad Endings and Rough Situations

Did 'orange' the fruit or the color come first?
See More

Popular

See More

'Affect' vs. 'Effect'

16 Food Words Recently Added to the Dictionary

The Real Origin of 'Supercalifragilistic'
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
artwork of illustrated limes with the text limes and smile with an arrow connecting the two words
Quiz: Spot the Anagram! Scramble these words to find new words with the e...
See All