concoct
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
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to make by combining different ingredients
-
to invent; make up; contrive
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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concoctsimple
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concoctssimple
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have concoctedperfect
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has concoctedperfect
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am concoctingprogressive
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are concoctingprogressive
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is concoctingprogressive
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have been concoctingperfect progressive
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has been concoctingperfect progressive
Past
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concoctedsimple
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had concoctedperfect
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was concoctingprogressive
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were concoctingprogressive
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had been concoctingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of concoct
First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin concoctus (past participle of concoquere “to cook together”), equivalent to con- con- + coc-, variant stem of coquere “to boil, cook 1 ” from Greek péptein; see pepsin, peptic) + -tus past participle ending
Explanation
When you concoct something, you mix up different ingredients. If you want to become a mad scientist or a wizard, you'll have to learn how to concoct strange potions. If the word concoction makes you think of steaming caldrons or liquids bubbling in test tubes, you’ll be amused to know that it comes from a Latin word for “digestion.” Yum! On summer days, children sometimes concoct imaginative stews from grass, leaves and dirt. They may also concoct lies to explain why they tried feeding such concoctions to their little sister.
Vocabulary lists containing concoct
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Excerpt from "Letter from Birmingham Jail"
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And Then There Were None
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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:
One way seems to be through the “distributed attentional focus” that music inspires, where we concoct images in time with the sound.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 15, 2026
But the sport’s actual heartland, where engineers concoct the most sophisticated machines in motor sports, could hardly be farther from superyachts and velvet ropes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
Rather, he’s using a shoestring budget to concoct left-of-center sights that feel like a peek into a specific Los Angeles netherworld.
From Salon ● Apr. 5, 2026
Having taken control of the DC Universe, he’s pivoted away from gloom to concoct a Superman who isn’t too sweet or too serious — frankly, he’s a little stupid.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2025
Shackleton had consulted the British Army’s nutritionist, who believed in the newfangled idea of vitamins and who helped concoct the rations.
From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong
With each manicured frame and deceptively poignant observation on the impossibility of living normally in modern life, Kramer concocts an original, wonderfully empathetic study of the desire to play spectator to a world on fire.
From Salon ● Feb. 18, 2026
Each weekday, your host, Ray Hamel, concocts a challenging set of unique questions on a specific topic.
From Slate ● Jun. 12, 2023
Multicellular living matter concocts its own schemes, which means cells won't necessarily stay in the same place or state.
From Scientific American ● May 31, 2023
But when Matsson mentions that he heard a rumor about her being pregnant, she concocts a version of motherhood where she is “emailing through her vanity cesarean” and her kid “will never see her.”
From New York Times ● May 21, 2023
Spike concocts what looks like a gourmet meal out of the regular offerings of the cafeteria.
From "Sparrow" by Sarah Moon
But John believes all of it to be an elaborate publicity stunt concocted by Arcane — or, at least, that’s what he tells himself.
From Salon ● Jul. 17, 2026
My favorite Father’s Day gifts are a terrible breakfast concocted by my daughters and an afternoon at the smoker where no one mentions what the ribs are doing to my arteries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 17, 2026
“But I think that’s a lie,” she says, briskly brushing off the stories as a smear campaign concocted by Otso’s enemies.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 16, 2026
In an interview with The Times, Sid confessed that the whole thing was a lie concocted by a publicist in the 1940s.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 13, 2026
I concocted a way for Rich to meet my mother and win her over.
From "The Joy Luck Club" by Amy Tan
To reignite waning interest in space travel, Musk had initially tried concocting a publicity stunt to send plant seeds to Mars in hope of sprouting new life there.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026
“I was just concocting like a lot of different sugary meals and eating it every day, and then going back home and making all these songs that have blown up,” Todd said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 4, 2026
Williams, having supposedly brought disgrace on Harlequins by independently concocting the blood capsule plan, sought advice from the Rugby Players' Association.
From BBC ● Mar. 24, 2025
It’s a lot of pressure, concocting a flawless ending.
From Salon ● Dec. 17, 2024
In 1768, the Berlin embryologist Caspar Wolff tried to finesse an answer by concocting a guiding principle—vis essentialis corporis, as he called it—that progressively shepherded the maturation of a fertilized egg into a human form.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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.
