conceive
Americanverb (used with object)
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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)
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to form an idea; think (usually followed byof ).
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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
Related Words
See imagine.
Other Word Forms
- conceiver noun
- nonconceiving noun
- reconceive verb
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.
Andie Pangan did not even conceive of the possibility she would fail to snag tickets for tennis or climbing events at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2026
Back then, nobody could conceive of humankind being connected by machines that also facilitated our disconnection from each other.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2026
“Undoubtedly, AI will usher in new tasks and occupations, many of which are impossible for us to conceive of today,” the Fed’s Cook said.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 1, 2026
Understanding these seasonal patterns could improve fertility treatments, by optimising the timing of treatment and fertility testing to provide better guidance to couples trying to conceive.
From BBC • Feb. 25, 2026
Over the past 10,000 years, Homo sapiens has grown so accustomed to being the only human species that it’s hard for us to conceive of any other possibility.
From "Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind" by Yuval Noah Harari
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.
