Word.ws English Dictionary

con

UK/kɒn//kɑn/

con verb: to study or examine carefully, especially in order to gain knowledge of; to learn, or learn by heart. Also the alternative form of conn.

Verb (1)

con (third-person singular simple present cons, present participle conning, simple past and past participle conned)

  1. (rare) To study or examine carefully, especially in order to gain knowledge of; to learn, or learn by heart.
    • For Caſſius is a-weary of the World: / Hated by one he loues, brau'd by his Brother, / Check'd like a bondman, all his faults obſeru'd, / Set in a Note-booke, learn'd, and con'd by roate / To caſt into my Teeth.1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
    • At length, himself unsettling, he the pond / Stirred with his staff, and fixedly did look / Upon the muddy water, which he conned, / As if he had been reading in a book1815 [1802], William Wordsworth, Resolution and Independence
  2. (obsolete, rare) To know; understand; acknowledge.
    • Of Muses Hobbinol, I conne no skill1579, Immeritô [pseudonym; Edmund Spenser], The Shepheardes Calender: […], London: […] Hugh Singleton, […], →OCLC

Noun (1)

con (plural cons)

  1. A disadvantage of something, especially when contrasted with its advantages (pros).
    • pros and cons
    Synonyms:
    disadvantage

Noun (2)

con (plural cons)

  1. (slang) A convicted criminal, a convict.

Noun (3)

con (plural cons)

  1. (informal) A fraud; something carried out with the intention of deceiving, usually for personal, often illegal, gain.
    • My heart is breaking for my sister
      And the con that she called "love"2012, Jeff Bhasker, Nate Ruess, Andrew Dost, Jack Antonoff, “Some Nights”, in Some Nights), performed by fun.
    • Leavers will be attracted to that story because it spares them the discomfort of admitting that they voted for a con, and then made a prime minister of the con artist.2021 February 23, Rafael Behr, “Brexit is a machine to generate perpetual grievance. It's doing its job perfectly”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2021

Verb (2)

con (third-person singular simple present cons, present participle conning, simple past and past participle conned)

  1. (informal, transitive) To trick, lie or defraud, usually for personal gain.
    • Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals [title]2017 July 17, Martin Lukacs, “Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 22 Apr 2022
    • Taiwan man soaks feet in dry ice for 10 hours to con insurance firms, causing amputation […] A man in Taiwan shocked the internet after attempting to defraud five insurance companies by immersing his feet in a bucket of dry ice for 10 hours, resulting in the amputation of both feet.2025 June 25, Yating Yang, “Taiwan man soaks feet in dry ice for 10 hours to con insurance firms, causing amputation”, in South China Morning Post, archived from the original on 03 Apr 2026
    Synonyms:
    be sold a pup, abuse, beglammer, counterfeit, deceive, catch, trap into, dissemble, dissimulate, feign

Noun (4)

con (plural cons)

  1. (informal) An organized gathering, such as a convention, conference, or congress.
    • I can't speak for Faye as ed of FHAPA, but it would be really swell of someone could send us a set of Intersection daily newszines, plus any con flyers or other fannish papers that were there to had for the picking up: fannish things, you know, not including media, gaming, filking or costuming...1995 September 4, Lindsay Crawford, “Re: Intersection”, in rec.arts.sf.fandom (Usenet), message-ID <9509042250393785@emerald.com>

Noun (5)

con (plural cons)

  1. (informal) The conversion of part of a building.
    • We're getting a loft con done next year.

Noun (6)

con (uncountable)

  1. (informal, obsolete) Consumption; pulmonary tuberculosis.

Noun (7)

con (plural cons)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) Squirrel, particularly the red squirrel.
  2. (Northern England, obsolete) A squirrel's nest.

Noun (8)

con (plural cons)

  1. (abbreviation) A political conservative.
    • own the cons

Noun (9) capitalized: CON

CON (plural CONs)

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of Certificate of Need.
  2. (abbreviation, initialism, roleplaying games) Initialism of constitution point.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: CON

CON

  1. (UK, abbreviation) Abbreviation of Conservative Party.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Con

Con

  1. A male given name, a diminutive form of Conor, Conrad or Cornelius.
  2. A female given name, a diminutive form of Connie.
  3. (UK, abbreviation) Abbreviation of Conservative.

Also used as

con is also the alternative form of conn.

con is also the abbreviation of consolidation.

con is also the abbreviation of consolidated.

con meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Bengali and Telugu

con in Hindi

कॉन

con in Marathi

कॉन

con in Bengali

কন, টু কন

con in Telugu

కాన్
More languagesFewer languages
con in Malayalam
കോൻ
con in Kannada
ಕಾನ್
con in Gujarati
કોન્
con in Odia
କୋନ୍ କରିବା
con in Nepali
छक्याउनु chakyāunu
con in Thai
ข้อเสีย kɔ̂ɔ-sǐia
con in Vietnamese
nhược điểm, khuyết điểm

Examples of con in a sentence

  • I did not come into parliament to con my lesson.1795, Edmund Burke, Letter to a Noble Lord on the Attacks Made upon him and his Pension, in the House of Lords, by the Duke of Bedford and...
  • During these delectable entertainments, Miss Wirt and the chaperon sate by, and conned over the peerage, and talked about the nobility.1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, chapter 21, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848...
  • One day, however, when he had been conning one of his music-scores, and by force of imagination was hearing the tune in his head, he lapsed into listlessness, and the music-sheet rolled to the hearth.1891, Thomas Hardy, chapter XVIII, in Tess of the D’Urbervilles:
  • The hawk rested on a crag of the gorge and conned the terrain with a fierce and frowning eye.1963, D'Arcy Niland, Dadda jumped over two elephants: short stories:

All 40 example sentences with con

Synonyms of con

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of con

Forms of con

Verb
third-person singular presentcons
present participleconning
past participleconned
pastconned
alternative formconne
Noun
pluralcons
alternative formconn

Plural of con: cons

Origin of con

Inherited from Middle English connen, inherited from Old English cunnan (“to know, know how”), inherited from Proto-West Germanic *kunnan (“recognize, know how”), inherited from Proto-Germanic *kunnaną (“to know, know how”), inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃- (“to know”) Doublet of can.

Abbreviation of Latin contrā (“against”).

Clipping of convict.

Words formed from con

Phrases with con

11 more phrasesFewer phrases

Words that rhyme with con

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about con

What does con mean?
Con means to study or examine carefully, especially in order to gain knowledge of; to learn, or learn by heart.
What is con in Hindi?
Con in Hindi is कॉन. See Con meaning in Hindi.
How do you use con in a sentence?
I did not come into parliament to con my lesson.
What part of speech is con?
Con can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce con?
Con is pronounced /kɒn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of con?
The past tense of con is conned.

Words near con in the dictionary

  1. Comănești
  2. comœdic
  3. comœdie
  4. comœdies
  5. comœdy
  6. con
  7. con amore
  8. con artist
  9. con artistry
  10. con artists
  11. con brio

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: con (page history and authors); CON (page history and authors); Con (page history and authors); con (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); con (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-khan.ogg.

Cite this entry: “con.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/con. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.