conclude
Americanverb (used with object)
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concludes,
present (3rd person singular)
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concluded,
past participle, past
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concluding
present participle
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to bring to an end; finish; terminate.
to conclude a speech with a quotation from the Bible.
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to say in conclusion.
At the end of the speech he concluded that we had been a fine audience.
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to bring to a decision or settlement; settle or arrange finally.
to conclude a treaty.
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to determine by reasoning; deduce; infer.
They studied the document and concluded that the author must have been an eyewitness.
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to decide, determine, or resolve.
He concluded that he would go no matter what the weather.
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Obsolete.
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to shut up or enclose.
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to restrict or confine.
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verb (used without object)
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concludes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
concluded,
past participle, past
-
concluding
present participle
verb
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(also intr) to come or cause to come to an end or conclusion
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(takes a clause as object) to decide by reasoning; deduce
the judge concluded that the witness had told the truth
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to arrange finally; settle
to conclude a treaty
it was concluded that he should go
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obsolete to confine
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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concludernoun
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preconcludeverb (used with object)
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concludableadjective
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concludibleadjective
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nonconcludingadjective
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unconcludableadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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concludesimple
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concludessimple
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have concludedperfect
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has concludedperfect
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am concludingprogressive
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are concludingprogressive
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is concludingprogressive
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have been concludingperfect progressive
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has been concludingperfect progressive
Past
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concludedsimple
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had concludedperfect
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was concludingprogressive
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were concludingprogressive
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had been concludingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of conclude
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English, from Latin conclūdere “to close, end an argument,” equivalent to con- con- + -clūdere, combining form of claudere “to close ”
Explanation
The verb conclude means two related things: coming to a decision, and bringing to a close. Conclude is related to the word close, which is related to an old Latin word for "barrier" or "bolt" — the kind you put on a door. When you conclude something, it's as though you're pulling a door shut and bolting it. If your girlfriend concludes an argument by leaving the room and slamming the door, you can conclude that she's angry at you.
Vocabulary lists containing conclude
Tier 2 Words for the SBAC ELA Items
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Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Academic Vocabulary Toolkit 1, Words 21-30
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Combined with other observations, including its exceptionally high temperature, the measurements led the researchers to conclude that they were witnessing a star being ripped apart and swallowed by a black hole.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 16, 2026
“I guess they have to to conclude this case. But I think it’s such a waste of our American dollars,” the juror said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
Fulham conclude their pre-season preparations against Stuttgart on Saturday.
From BBC ● Aug. 13, 2026
Ultimately, they conclude, finding a new constitutional meaning that actually embraces the public’s true understanding of the document requires returning to our old understanding.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
After another quarter of an hour, however, he was forced to conclude that the rest of his mother’s letter was gone.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
And, whatever it concludes, the Virginia investigation is a reminder that, as the court observed in the Walker case, all of us have a duty to secure “justice for all persons, whether living or deceased.”
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2026
The LIV season concludes with the team championship in Michigan from 27-30 August.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
On top of this, there is still scope for potential accretive M&A activity, the analyst concludes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 5, 2026
This year’s weeklong contest concludes Saturday in Phoenix, when a new world champion will be crowned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 31, 2026
Newton’s modern biographer, Richard Westfall, concludes that we should regard Newton’s claim to have been surprised by the oblong image cast by the prism ‘as a rhetorical device which is not to be understood literally’.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
“Two independent doctors evaluated Hoetzlein and each concluded he met the legal criteria for a finding of not guilty by reason of insanity,” Ventura County Dist.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
It was Ghana that tabled the UN resolution, and in June, a summit on reparations was held in its capital, Accra, with delegates from around 80 countries, who concluded that recompense was long overdue.
From BBC ● Aug. 16, 2026
Meanwhile, an analysis by the Yale Budget Lab concluded that consumers are paying anywhere from half to the entire cost of the levies through higher prices, depending on the goods.
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2026
Brockman concluded the March 3 email by noting a birthday party being thrown for him that Saturday, saying Clark and Capocefalo would be there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 14, 2026
Based on what divers and researchers have discovered and concluded, from 1942 to 1945, the seas where the Monitor went down were an important World War II battlefield.
From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler
Tractor Supply is dialing up promotions and trimming prices on popular items after concluding consumer belt-tightening won’t abate anytime soon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 10, 2026
"Markets treated the report as a meaningful challenge to near term Fed rate hike expectations, effectively concluding the Fed has time on its side," wrote National Australia Bank's Rodrigo Catril.
From Barron's ● Aug. 10, 2026
In January 2025 an Air Busan plane was destroyed on the tarmac in Gimhae Airport in South Korea, with investigators concluding a power bank battery pack left in an overhead luggage compartment was the culprit.
From BBC ● Aug. 6, 2026
The report, completed within weeks, laid the blame on “defective foundations,” concluding that gravity dams were safe if built on bedrock.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 6, 2026
“Nor are Duncan and Donalbain, who also share an initial and, for that matter, concluding, consonant, the same person.”
From "The Wednesday Wars" by Gary D. Schmidt
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
