conceive
Americanverb (used with object)
-
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.
-
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
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(tr) to develop or form, esp in the mind
she conceived a passion for music
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to become pregnant with (young)
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rare (tr) to express in words
Synonym Usage
See imagine.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
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
-
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:
The pair ran their own surrogacy company and are accused of making false statements to at least two women who became surrogates, indicating that Zhang was struggling to conceive, according to the criminal complaint.
From BBC ● Oct. 7, 2026
It had taken three years for us to conceive our first child.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2026
Until, that is, they conceive of a plan to get Lady Jemima to accept Lord Wynstowe as her husband.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 26, 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
At the time, I couldn’t conceive of myself being up onstage.
From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove
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
Turk conceives her character as a collection of insecurities and hesitant expressions, making Dalia the perfect candidate to be metaphorically reborn through an unlikely forest adventure in which magical events will occur.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 14, 2025
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
"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
The ingenuous man, who finds in his will, as his most familiar source of power, the best facilities for comparison, conceives a species of spirit in the magnet.
From Popular scientific lectures by Ernst Mach
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
But Audrey had been conceived in 1979, before any such legislation existed.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
With Beaujoyeulx, Catherine conceived what have come to be accepted as the world’s first formal ballets.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Along with Jerry Seinfeld, a comedy-club pal, Mr. David was instrumental in conceiving the premise of “Seinfeld,” which began as an exploration of how a comedian gets his ideas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
“The actual conceiving of the piece was really very difficult,” said Mr. Adams.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026
The global policy chief for OpenAI was reportedly involved in conceiving the group.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2026
But some symptoms are highly suggestive of PCOS, including irregular or missed periods, excessive hair growth on the face and body, acne, weight gain, and difficulty conceiving.
From Slate ● Sep. 19, 2025
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
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.
