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
-
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:
It had taken three years for us to conceive our first child.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 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
How did you come to conceive of how to depict people’s online life?
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 2026
Better reproductive-health education in schools, focused on biology, could catch conditions that women currently discover only when they are already trying to conceive.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 6, 2026
But what might be passing between them, she couldn’t conceive.
From "The Golden Compass" by Philip Pullman
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
Your correspondent evidently conceives it as a place where things are sold.
From The Great Illusion A Study of the Relation of Military Power to National Advantage by Norman Angell
The idea behind the sculpture park, when Halsey first conceived it about 16 years ago, she said in an interview, was a space that represents and pays homage to the neighborhood, both aesthetically and conceptually.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
“The Great American Road Trip” was conceived as a travelogue, after a fashion, celebrating the 250th anniversary of America’s founding.
From Salon ● Aug. 23, 2026
The technology was first conceived decades ago but came to the fore during the Covid-19 pandemic, when Moderna and Pfizer developed vaccines that were highly effective against serious forms of the illness.
From Barron's ● Aug. 19, 2026
At least 30 children, most of them British, are feared to have been conceived by IVF treatment in northern Cyprus using the wrong sperm or egg donors.
From BBC ● Aug. 18, 2026
How small-minded and hypocritical mortal man was, for even as they despised the enders of life, they loved nature—which, in those days, took every human life ever conceived.
From "Scythe" by Neal Shusterman
In conceiving the story, they also wanted to avoid the “cottage industry” that had popped up around Bourdain’s death, which focused on the mystery of his final days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 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
But Bi is after more than elaborate dress-up, conceiving each episode as an exploration of how movies amplify and comment on life’s cavalcade of emotions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2025
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
I hastened to drive from my mind the hateful notion I had been conceiving respecting Grace Poole; it disgusted me.
From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
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.
