It's implicit arguments, not implicit conversions that enable type classes in Scala, although the class is usually represented by a trait e.g. trait Show[T

It's implicit arguments, not implicit conversions that enable type classes in Scala, although the class is usually represented by a trait e.g. trait Show[T] { def show(v : T): String } implicit object ShowInt extends Show[Int] { def show(i: Int) = i.toString } def showLine[T](v : T)(implicit show: Show[T]): Unit = { println(show.show(v)) }