Meaning & use
roundtable discussion
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Meaning
nouncountable
A conversation among several people with equal standing, who exchange views on a topic, often in front of an audience or for broadcast.
Grammar: Takes an or the: they held a roundtable discussion.
Patterns
- a roundtable discussion on something
- a roundtable discussion with someone
The magazine hosted a roundtable discussion on the future of local news.
Teachers joined a roundtable discussion about reading in schools.
In the roundtable discussion, nobody was allowed to speak for more than two minutes.
Word forms
| plural | roundtable discussions |
|---|
Common combinations
- host a roundtable discussion
- The mayor will host a roundtable discussion with local business owners.
- join a roundtable discussion
- Experts joined a roundtable discussion on climate policy.
- panel roundtable discussion
- The panel roundtable discussion lasted an hour.
- lively roundtable discussion
- A lively roundtable discussion followed the film.
- moderate a roundtable discussion
- She will moderate the roundtable discussion on public health.
Synonyms and how they differ
- panel discussion
- A panel discussion has speakers facing an audience, while a roundtable stresses equality among participants seated together.
- forum
- A forum is an open meeting for public debate, whereas a roundtable is usually smaller and invited.
- symposium
- A symposium is a more formal, often academic conference with several presentations.
Word family
- roundtable noun
- a meeting where participants talk as equals
- round table noun
- a circular table
- discuss verb
- to talk about something with others
- discussion noun
- a conversation about a topic
Commonly confused: roundtable discussion or roundtable vs. round table?
roundtable discussion vs roundtable vs. round table
Round table (two words) means an actual circular table, while roundtable describes the type of meeting.
Practice
Six experts sat together for a ___ in which no one led and everyone shared opinions.
Choose one answer.
A roundtable discussion has several equals exchanging views. A lecture or keynote has one speaker, and a press release is a written statement.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “roundtable discussion”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.