conspire
Americanverb (used without object)
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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)
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.
Related Words
See plot.
Other Word Forms
- conspirer noun
- conspiringly adverb
- nonconspiring adjective
- preconspire verb
- unconspired adjective
- unconspiring adjective
- unconspiringly adverb
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”; con-, spirant, spirit
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.
The court convicted the 65-year-old on Thursday on charges of insurrection and conspiring with military officials to mobilize troops in December 2024.
Two executives of bankrupt telecommunications business Mobileum conspired to inflate the company’s profit ahead of a private-equity buyout, federal prosecutors alleged in a criminal indictment.
WASHINGTON—A former Federal Reserve official was found not guilty Tuesday of conspiring to share confidential central-bank information with Chinese intelligence officers, capping a case that featured spycraft, online seduction and a blackmail scam.
Prosecutors allege the group conspired to interfere with the First Amendment rights of worshippers and violated federal laws designed to protect access to places of worship.
From Salon
You wake up and feel a little off — maybe it’s sadness, maybe it’s excitement, maybe it’s burnout, maybe it’s just the weather and your inbox conspiring against you.
From Salon
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.
