Convention

Convention sometimes signifies an agreement, whence our use of the adjective conventional to denote what is in accordance with the tacit principles governing society. In a political sense the word is used to denote an informal parliament, which assumes power during an interregnum, and whose measures require the later sanction of a properly formed parliament in order to have legal force. Such a convention arranged the return of Charles II., and such another bestowed the British Crown upon William of Orange. In the United States, "State Conventions" are the assemblies occasionally elected to revise the State Constitutions, while party conventions meet for various purposes, especially to settle the nomination for the presidency.