1. (social convention) An established understanding, standard practice, rule, or expectation widely shared by members of a culture or subculture: often implicit, taken for granted, and experienced as natural. See also common sense; conformity; culture; gender; naturalization; norm; scenario; social codes; social schemata.
2. (textual convention) A well-established feature of content, form, and/or style of text in any medium, widely understood by the intended audiences (e.g., in film and television, continuity editing). Textual conventions in the mass media can sometimes be formulaic (see also broadcast codes). Such conventions do change over time (see codification), and textual transgressions are increasingly used with savvy consumers: see also dominant code; film grammar; genre; pictorial codes; textual codes; textual schemata.
3. (semiotics) Usually a synonym for a code.
