concept
Americannoun
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concepts
plural
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a general notion or idea; conception.
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an idea of something formed by mentally combining all its characteristics or particulars; a construct.
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a directly conceived or intuited object of thought.
adjective
verb (used with object)
noun
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an idea, esp an abstract idea
the concepts of biology
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philosophy a general idea or notion that corresponds to some class of entities and that consists of the characteristic or essential features of the class
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philosophy
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the conjunction of all the characteristic features of something
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a theoretical construct within some theory
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a directly intuited object of thought
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the meaning of a predicate
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(modifier) (of a product, esp a car) created as an exercise to demonstrate the technical skills and imagination of the designers, and not intended for mass production or sale
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of concept
First recorded in 1550–60; from Latin conceptum “something conceived,” originally neuter of conceptus “conceived,” past participle of concipere “to conceive,” equivalent to con- con- ( def. ) + -cipere, combining form of capere “to seize”
Explanation
A concept is a thought or idea. If you're redecorating your bedroom, you might want to start with a concept, such as "flower garden" or "outer space." It's a general idea about a thing or group of things, derived from specific instances or occurrences. It often applies to a theoretical idea in science: Einstein's contribution to the concept of relativity. Concept was borrowed from Late Latin conceptus, from Latin concipere "to take in, conceive, receive." A concept is an idea conceived in the mind. The original meaning of the verb conceive was to take sperm into the womb, and by a later extension of meaning, to take an idea into the mind.
Vocabulary lists containing concept
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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The SAT: Language of the Test, List 5
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The Language of Standardized Tests, List 4
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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:
He added: "They had no concept of how bad Scottish weather can be and how unrelenting the wind and rain is."
From BBC ● Aug. 10, 2026
She adds, “The concept of the celebrity documentary is like a giant umbrella, and there are just so many lanes of what that can mean.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
The concept debuted in a 2013 promo for NBC’s coverage of the English Premier League, then launched as a full-blown sitcom during the angst and fear of the coronavirus pandemic seven years later.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 9, 2026
The new work pushes that concept further by replacing the LED with sunlight.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 8, 2026
“O for the P,” as Farmer would eventually abbreviate the term, was a simple concept.
From "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder and Michael French
"Our chat book is not a library of books -- it's a library of concepts and ideas and facts," says founder Brian Yang.
From Barron's ● Jul. 27, 2026
It introduced groundbreaking concepts like “white-collar crime,” “gentrification,” “unintended consequences” and “cultural capital.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 25, 2026
Samer Halawi, a consultant and former satellite executive, said SpaceX has exposed itself to more pressure by going public, especially as it pursues untested concepts like deploying AI satellites.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 23, 2026
It’s the small details, which we could be here all day enumerating, and the delivery, rather than the big concepts, that bring the show alive.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 22, 2026
So if you want to learn music theory, it would be a good idea to spend some time getting comfortable with the concepts below and practicing identifying intervals.
From "Understanding Basic Music Theory" by Catherine Schmidt-Jones and Russel Jones
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.
