Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To be in agreement, harmony, or conformity.
  • intransitive verb To be similar or equivalent in character, quantity, origin, structure, or function.
  • intransitive verb To communicate by letter, usually over a period of time.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To be in the same or an analogous relation to one set of objects that something else is to another set of objects; to be, as an individual of a collection, related to an individual of another collection by some mode of relation in which the members of the first collection generally are related to those of the second: followed by to.
  • More generally In mathematics, to be, as an individual of a set, related to an individual of another (or the same) set in a way in which every individual of the first set is related to a definite number of individuals of the second set, and in which a definite number of individuals of the first set is related to each individual of the second set.
  • To be in conformity or agreement; have an answering form or nature; be reciprocally adapted or complementary; agree; match; fit: used absolutely or followed by with or to: as, his words and actions do not correspond; the promise and the performance do not correspond with each other; his expenditures do not correspond to his income.
  • To communicate by means of letters sent and received; hold intercourse with a person at a distance by sending and receiving letters: absolutely or followed by with.
  • To hold communion: followed by with.
  • Synonyms (Of correspond to.) To suit, answer to, accord with, harmonize with, tally with, comport with.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be like something else in the dimensions and arrangement of its parts; -- followed by with or to.
  • intransitive verb To be adapted; to be congruous; to suit; to agree; to fit; to answer; -- followed by to.
  • intransitive verb To have intercourse or communion; especially, to hold intercourse or to communicate by sending and receiving letters; -- followed by with.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive to be equivalent or similar in character, quantity, quality, origin, structure, function etc.
  • verb intransitive to exchange messages, especially by postal letter, over a period of time.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb take the place of or be parallel or equivalent to
  • verb be compatible, similar or consistent; coincide in their characteristics
  • verb be equivalent or parallel, in mathematics
  • verb exchange messages

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French correspondre, from Medieval Latin correspondēre : Latin com-, com- + respondēre, to respond; see respond.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French correspondre, from Latin com- ("with") + respondeo ("to match, to answer to")

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Examples

  • The labels correspond to the lines on the Yamanote train line, while the hands correspond to where the train is at a given time.

    Da Vinci Alarm Clock Gets Back To Basics 2007

  • _ Bring the envelope with you and you will see that the coins correspond to the impression in the wax.

    The Golden Scorpion Sax Rohmer 1921

  • Bring the envelope with you and you will see that the coins correspond to the impression in the wax.

    The Golden Scorpion Sax Rohmer 1921

  • Here the English long and short syllables -- as far as "long" and "short" can be definitely distinguished in English -- correspond precisely to the rules of Roman prosody.

    A Study of Poetry Bliss Perry 1907

  • Then St. Lusson (a sword in one hand and "crumbling turf in the other") cried to his French followers who applauded his sentences, to the savages who could not understand, to the rapids which would not heed, and to the forests which have long forgotten the vibrations of his voice, the words in French to which these words in English correspond:

    The French in the Heart of America John Finley 1901

  • Derai acknowledged the French word used in the passage, "enfer," might not precisely correspond directly with the English word "hell."

    StarTribune.com rss feed 2010

  • The extent to which the link text and the page title correspond may be expressed as a percentage of tokens which match.

    Search Engine Watch Blog 2009

  • Then, we began to "correspond" -- that is to say, we used to exchange about four letters a day; what we used to say in 'em I can't imagine.

    Sketches by Boz, illustrative of everyday life and every-day people Charles Dickens 1841

  • The changes of the name correspond exactly to the changes in the narratives and the titles of the several pieces. "

    Smith's Bible Dictionary 1884

  • Lieutenant Uhura, does the location of the distress call correspond with this area exactly?

    Wink Of An Eye 1966

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