Discourse (from Latin discursus, "running to and from") denotes written and spoken communications such as: * In semantics and discourse analysis: Discourse is a conceptual generalization of conversation within each modality and context of communication. * The totality of codified language (vocabulary) used in a given field of intellectual enquiry and of social practice, such as legal discourse, medical discourse, religious discourse, et cetera. * In the work of Michel Foucault, and that of the social theoreticians he inspired: discourse describes "an entity of sequences, of signs, in that they are enouncements (énoncés)", statements in conversation.