conceive
Americanverb (used with object)
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conceives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
conceived,
past participle, past
-
conceiving
present participle
-
to form (a notion, opinion, purpose, etc.).
He conceived the project while he was on vacation.
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to form a notion or idea of; imagine.
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to hold as an opinion; think; believe.
I can't conceive that it would be of any use.
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to experience or form (a feeling).
to conceive a great love for music.
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to express, as in words.
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to become pregnant with.
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to beget.
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to begin, originate, or found (something) in a particular way (usually used in the passive).
a new nation conceived in liberty.
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Archaic. to understand; comprehend.
verb (used without object)
-
conceives,
present (3rd person singular)
-
conceived,
past participle, past
-
conceiving
present participle
-
to form an idea; think (usually followed byof ).
-
to become pregnant.
verb
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to have an idea (of); imagine; think
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(tr; takes a clause as object or an infinitive) to hold as an opinion; believe
-
(tr) to develop or form, esp in the mind
she conceived a passion for music
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to become pregnant with (young)
-
rare (tr) to express in words
Synonym Usage
See imagine.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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conceivesimple
-
conceivessimple
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have conceivedperfect
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has conceivedperfect
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am conceivingprogressive
-
are conceivingprogressive
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is conceivingprogressive
-
have been conceivingperfect progressive
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has been conceivingperfect progressive
Past
-
conceivedsimple
-
had conceivedperfect
-
was conceivingprogressive
-
were conceivingprogressive
-
had been conceivingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of conceive
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English from Anglo-French, Old French conceivre, from Latin concipere “to take fully, take in,” equivalent to con- con- + -cipere, combining form of capere “to take”
Explanation
To conceive is to come up with an idea. If you conceive a plan for your little brother's birthday, you dream up the perfect party, complete with a magician, rented ponies, and a cake shaped like a rocket. Latin roots for conceive (by way of French) point to "take into" either "the womb" or "the mind." An idea is sometimes called "a seed" or "the seed of an idea," and conceive means to produce something from inside the mind — or to become pregnant. Another expression is "pregnant with ideas" or "pregnant with possibilities," and someone who can "conceive of a thousand ways" to solve a problem or design something is full of new ideas.
Vocabulary lists containing conceive
Jim Burke's Academic Vocabulary List
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Abraham Lincoln's "Gettysburg Address" (1863)
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"The Tell-Tale Heart," Vocabulary from the short story
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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:
At the age of 35 she decided to freeze her eggs in the hope it may help her conceive in the future.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
The couple often used Xuan’s sperm and a donor egg to conceive the children, documents reviewed by the Journal showed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
Some may find a partner and conceive on their own; some may decide they no longer want children; and others may choose another path to parenthood, such as adoption.
From Slate ● Aug. 29, 2026
Today, the impacts of those efforts are everywhere, so ingrained in our understanding of what it means to solve climate change that it can be hard to conceive of another way forward.
From Salon ● Jun. 26, 2026
She had wanted the secession to happen, but now it seemed too big to conceive.
From "Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Clearly Ms. Footer conceives of Bradley as something of a tortured Romantic; what’s unclear—in fact, what is unknowable—is whether Bradley did himself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 20, 2026
Perhaps the big divide here isn’t about what one wants one’s family to look like, but in how one conceives of parenthood in the first place.
From Slate ● Sep. 13, 2025
That’s perhaps because Kaurismäki conceives these sturdy people to be wiser than most about how rare it is to come across someone with matching wounds.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2023
"If I'd known that one in five women conceives naturally after IVF, I'd have used contraception until I was ready both emotionally and physically."
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2023
Think of how frequently the beginner in physics or mathematics performs more, or less, than is required, or of how frequently he conceives things differently from what they are!
From Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach
Maybe one out of 20 ideas is conceived with a laugh in them.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
Halzen, who grew up in Belgium, paid rich tribute to the roughly 450 people across more than a dozen countries who have helped turn an idea he conceived in the late 1980s into reality.
From Barron's ● Oct. 6, 2026
Sophocles conceived his play as part of a trilogy with a larger metaphysical design.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Thankfully, violence has been pushed to the periphery of most societies to a degree ancient and medieval people never conceived possible.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
Exhibit three: even if a baby is conceived, wild pandas will typically produce just one cub every two years—an exceptionally slow method of repopulating.
From "Camp Panda" by Catherine Thimmesh
She has since had a daughter after conceiving naturally but says she has no regrets about freezing her eggs, which remain available for her to use in the future.
From BBC ● Oct. 13, 2026
Brooklyn resident Jenna Edwards always assumed she and her husband would have children, but they had trouble conceiving.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
The global policy chief for OpenAI was reportedly involved in conceiving the group.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2026
When F1 was conceiving the new engines, the idea was to attract more car manufacturers into the sport, and particularly the Volkswagen Group.
From BBC ● Mar. 5, 2026
Because he had no topographic map, however, he had no way of conceiving that salvation was so close at hand.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
