conspire
Americanverb (used without object)
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conspires,
present (3rd person singular)
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conspired,
past participle, past
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conspiring
present participle
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to agree together, especially secretly, to do something wrong, evil, or illegal.
They conspired to kill the king.
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to act or work together toward the same result or goal.
The wind and rain conspired to strip the trees of their fall color.
verb (used with object)
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conspires,
present (3rd person singular)
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conspired,
past participle, past
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conspiring
present participle
verb
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to plan or agree on (a crime or harmful act) together in secret
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(intr) to act together towards some end as if by design
the elements conspired to spoil our picnic
Usage
What does conspire mean? Conspire commonly means to secretly plan with multiple other people to do something wrong, evil, or illegal. Such a plan is called a conspiracy. Conspiracy can also refer to the act of making such plans—the act of conspiring—or to the group making the plans. The people involved can be called conspirators. In a legal context, conspiracy refers to an agreement by two or more people conspiring to commit a crime. Conspire can also mean to act together to achieve some result. This use often likens inanimate objects to people engaging in a conspiracy, as in I was on time until the traffic and the weather conspired to make me late. Example: In the movie, supervillains conspire to steal all of the world’s bananas.
Synonym Usage
See plot.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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conspirernoun
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preconspireverb
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nonconspiringadjective
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unconspiredadjective
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unconspiringadjective
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conspiringlyadverb
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unconspiringlyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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conspiresimple
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conspiressimple
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have conspiredperfect
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has conspiredperfect
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am conspiringprogressive
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are conspiringprogressive
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is conspiringprogressive
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have been conspiringperfect progressive
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has been conspiringperfect progressive
Past
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conspiredsimple
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had conspiredperfect
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was conspiringprogressive
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were conspiringprogressive
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had been conspiringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of conspire
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French conspirer, from Latin conspīrāre “to act in harmony, conspire,” equivalent to con- + spīrāre “to breathe”; see origin at con-, spirant, spirit
Explanation
When you conspire, you collaborate with others to do harm, or maybe just keep something from happening, like a group that conspires to get tuna melts booted from the lunch menu by urging everyone to order other things. You can conspire with someone, meaning you team up with another person to plot against someone else, or you can conspire against someone. This means you devise a scheme to do that person harm. Conspire also can be used in a more figurative sense to describe events that cause problems, like bad weather that may conspire against your picnic plans, or a series of injuries that conspire against a basketball team struggling to make the playoffs.
Vocabulary lists containing conspire
Power Prefix: con-
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1984
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Grade 9, List 5
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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:
In popular usage, it assumes the thing signified must be false, whereas people do conspire, and it is reasonable to devise theories about their schemes.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 23, 2025
A statement released by South Korea's National Police Agency revealed that the four suspects operated independently of one another, and did not conspire together.
From BBC ● Dec. 1, 2025
Circumstances can conspire against us, but there should be room for improvement.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 28, 2025
And how did he and his co-defendants, Mar-a-Lago staff members Carlos De Oliveira and Walt Nauta, conspire to resist the government’s lawful demands to return the documents?
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 22, 2024
But of course the universe does not conspire to put you in one place rather than another, Colin knew.
From "An Abundance of Katherines" by John Green
Kovalchuk publicly praised the 1968 Soviet movie “Dead Season,” in which the CIA conspires with former Nazi doctors to control humanity.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
And year after year, the calendar conspires to help them.
From Slate ● Oct. 31, 2025
“Office Space” falls apart in its third act when the trio clumsily conspires to rip off Initech.
From Salon ● Mar. 1, 2024
"When you commit to a journey, the universe conspires to help you," Smith told a beaming Mr Barry, citing author Paulo Coelho.
From BBC ● Jan. 4, 2024
I try to remain calm, but the body conspires against that, tries to drown me in distortion.
From "Every Day" by David Levithan
Four goals up on aggregate against LASK, O'Neill's Celtic somehow conspired to implode in a second half with little sign of a response on the way to a 5-4 aggregate loss.
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
But elite club soccer and the Major League Soccer academies have conspired to kill it by prohibiting their players from participating in high school or middle school programs.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
The Iran war, soaring jet-fuel prices, and the soccer World Cup have all conspired to make domestic travel in the U.S. incredibly pricey.
From Barron's ● Jun. 11, 2026
"Things have conspired against grassroot artists," he tells BBC News, "and without grassroots artists, there are no big artists."
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2026
Sumac squawked and bobbed his head up and down once more in agreement, as if the two of them had conspired to bring me there.
From "The Ugly One" by Leanne Statland Ellis
Several insurers have filed racketeering lawsuits against Liakas for allegedly conspiring with doctors to fabricate and exaggerate injuries.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
The pair admitted to charges of conspiring to commit unauthorised acts against TfL under the Computer Misuse Act.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
A Ukrainian man accused of conspiring to set fire to a car linked to Sir Keir Starmer has told a court that he refused to film the attack despite an alleged accomplice "begging" him to.
From BBC ● May 27, 2026
Peters, 70, was convicted on multiple criminal counts, four of them felonies, for conspiring to let an unauthorized person access supposedly compromised voting equipment.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 20, 2026
The universe and my subconscious may be conspiring against me.
From "Everything, Everything" by Nicola Yoon
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.
