face-to-face meeting

Meaning

1. 1nouncountable

   A conversation or gathering in which the people involved are in the same place together, rather than speaking by phone or video.

   Grammar: Countable: a face-to-face meeting, several face-to-face meetings.

   Patterns

   • a face-to-face meeting with someone
   • a face-to-face meeting about something

   We settled the dispute in a face-to-face meeting instead of exchanging emails.

   She asked for a face-to-face meeting with her manager to discuss the promotion.

   After months of video calls, the team finally had a face-to-face meeting in Berlin.

Word forms

Common combinations

arrange a face-to-face meeting

Can we arrange a face-to-face meeting next week?

request a face-to-face meeting

The client requested a face-to-face meeting before signing.

hold a face-to-face meeting

The board will hold a face-to-face meeting in March.

a face-to-face meeting with the director

He had a face-to-face meeting with the director that afternoon.

prefer a face-to-face meeting

Many negotiators prefer a face-to-face meeting for sensitive talks.

Synonyms and how they differ

in-person meeting

In-person meeting is almost identical in meaning, though it became more popular after remote work grew common.

personal meeting

Personal meeting can imply a private or one-to-one chat, while face-to-face meeting only stresses being in the same room.

live meeting

A live meeting might be an online call happening in real time, so it does not always mean people are in the same place.

Opposites

Word family

face-to-face adjective

happening with people in the same place

face to face adverb

in direct personal contact

meet verb

to come together

meeting noun

a gathering for discussion

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “face-to-face meeting”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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