What does webinar mean?
A webinar is a seminar, lecture, meeting, or presentation conducted over the internet. Speakers commonly share slides, video, audio, or demonstrations, while attendees can ask questions, respond in chat, vote in polls, or otherwise participate. Webinars may take place live and then be made available as recordings, and they are widely used for professional training, academic instruction, product demonstrations, conference presentations, and organizational updates. The term combines the web with seminar to describe an event that preserves some features of a traditional seminar while enabling people in different locations to attend. Although a webinar is not necessarily interactive and can resemble an online lecture, it generally implies a more organized event with opportunities for audience engagement. In contemporary usage, webinar has become a standard term for remote, internet-based presentations and seminars.
nounA webinar is a seminar conducted over the internet, typically allowing participants to listen, view presentations, and interact through audio, video, text, or online polling. It may be presented live or made available as a recording.
- An online seminar or presentation in which participants join remotely and may interact with the presenter and one another.
"The organization hosted a webinar to explain the new research findings to an international audience."
"Students registered for the webinar on career planning before attending the workshop."
"The company's monthly webinar featured a guest speaker and a question-and-answer session."
The regular plural is formed by adding -s.
"The organization offers free webinars on research methods and academic writing."
The name webinar neatly captures its hybrid nature: it is a seminar delivered through the web.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of webinar
Webinar is an English blend of web and seminar that came into common use during the 1990s as online communication and digital presentations developed. Seminar comes through English from Latin seminarium, originally a place for sowing seed, and ultimately from seminare, meaning to sow. Webinar retains the academic sense of seminar while adapting it to a format enabled by the web.
How webinar is actually used
Webinar is neutral in register and is especially common in professional, educational, technical, and marketing contexts. The term often implies some form of live interaction, although it can also refer to a recorded online seminar.
Easily confused with webinar
A webinar is usually an organized online event with opportunities for participation, whereas a webcast may be primarily a one-way broadcast of audio or video.
A webinar is a live or recorded online presentation or meeting, while a website is a collection of pages and online resources.