Word.ws English Dictionary

conceit

/kənˈsiːt/

conceit noun: something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.

Noun

conceit (countable and uncountable, plural conceits)

  1. (obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.
    • In laughing, there ever procedeth a conceit of somewhat ridiculous.1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted...
    • a man wise in his own conceit1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 26:12
  2. The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
    • a man of quick conceit
    • How often, alas! did her eyes say unto me that they loved! and yet I, not looking for such a matter, had not my conceit open to understand them.a. 1587, Philippe Sidnei [i.e., Philip Sidney], “(please specify the folio)”, in [Fulke Greville; Matthew Gwinne; John Florio], editors, The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia [The New Arcadia], London...
  3. Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
    • His wit's as thick as Tewksbury mustard; there is no more conceit in him than is in a mallet.c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, […]. Epilogue.”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
  4. (obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment.
  5. (archaic, dialectal) Esteem, favourable opinion.
    • By him that me boughte, than quod Dysdayne, / I wonder sore he is in suche cenceyte.1499, John Skelton, The Bowge of Courte
    • [G]ive him thy thanks for putting her into conceit with the sex that thou hast given her so much reason to execrate.1748, [Samuel Richardson], “Letter CCCXLV”, in Clarissa. Or, The History of a Young Lady: […], volume (please specify |volume=I to VII), London: […] S[amuel] Richardson; [a]nd sold by John Osborn...
  6. (countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
    • On his way to the gibbet, a freak took him in the head to go off with a conceit.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
    • Some to conceit alone their works confine, / And glitt'ring thoughts struck out at ev'ry line.1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC
  7. (countable, rhetoric) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.
    • The “cyberspace” conceit allows him to dramatize computer hacking in nontechnical language, although I wonder how much his somewhat florid descriptions of the “bodiless exultation of cyberspace” will mean to readers who have not experienced the illusion of power that punching the keyboard of even a...1985 November 24, Gerald Jonas, “Science Fiction”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
    • In the next and final stanza, Donne expands the conceit of world exploration to present us with a further distinction between the spirituality of the lovers and the “map reader” and “sea-discoverers.”2009, Harold Bloom, John Donne, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 16
  8. (uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
    • Plum'd with conceit he calls aloud.1826, Nathaniel Cotton, Fables
  9. Design; pattern.
    • And yet I know not how conceit may rob the treasury of life when life itself yields to the theft;c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

Verb

conceit (third-person singular simple present conceits, present participle conceiting, simple past and past participle conceited)

  1. (obsolete) To form an idea; to think.
    • Those whose […] vulgar apprehensions conceit but low of matrimonial purposes.1643, John Milton, The Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To conceive.
    • [T]his Medicine he conceits worse than the Disesase.c. 1620s, Elizabeth Cary [misattributed to Henry Cary], The History Of the most unfortunate Prince King Edward II. […] , London: A.G. and F. P., published 1680, page 36
    • That owls and ravens are ominous appearers, and presignifying unlucky events, as Christians yet conceit, was also an augurial conception.1646, Sir Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, V.23

conceit meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

conceit in Hindi

conceit, arrogance, vanity
अकड़ akaṛ
conceit, pride, hubris
दंभ dambh
conceit, pride
दिमाग़ dimāġ

conceit in Tamil

இறுமாப்பு, தற்செருக்கு, அகந்தை, பாவனை, போலிப் புனைவு

conceit in Urdu

conceit
مان mān, گھمنڈ ghamanḍ, ہماہمی hamāhamī, ناز nāz
conceit, pride
دماغ dimāġ
conceit, arrogance, vanity
اکڑ akaṛ

conceit in Bengali

অহংকার, কল্পনা
More languagesFewer languages
conceit in Malayalam
പൊങ്ങച്ചം, ഗർവ്വം, സ്വയമുള്ള മിഥ്യാബോധം, ദുരഭിമാനം
conceit in Kannada
ಹಮ್ಮು, ಹೆಮ್ಮೆ, ಹೆಕ್ಕಳ, ಅಹಂಕಾರ
conceit in Vietnamese
ngã mạn

Examples of conceit in a sentence

  • It was after a night like this that I shocked the community with a queer conceit about the burial of the rich and celebrated Squire Brewster […]1922, H. P. Lovecraft, “The Tomb”, in The Vagrant:
  • Tasso[…] is full of conceits […] which are not only below the dignity of heroic verse but contrary to its nature.1693, John Dryden, An Essay on Satire:
  • The book's main conceit is to make poetry from univocal words (words containing just one vowel) […]2012, Lauren Elkin, Scott Esposito, The End of Oulipo?: An attempt to exhaust a movement:
  • Its conceit was to relate historical incidents as if TV had existed at the time.2020 January 22, Stuart Jeffries, “Terry Jones obituary”, in The Guardian:

All 22 example sentences with conceit

Forms of conceit

Noun
pluralconceits
alternative form (obsolete)conceipt
Verb
third-person singular presentconceits
present participleconceiting
past participleconceited
pastconceited

Plural of conceit: conceits

Origin of conceit

From Middle English conceyte, formed from conceyven by analogy with pairs such as (Modern English) deceive~deceit, receive~receipt etc. Doublet of concept and concetto. Akin to Portuguese conceito.

Words formed from conceit

Words that rhyme with conceit

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about conceit

What does conceit mean?
Conceit means something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.
What is conceit in Hindi?
Conceit in Hindi is अकड़ (akaṛ), दंभ (dambh), दिमाग़ (dimāġ). See Conceit meaning in Hindi.
How do you use conceit in a sentence?
It was after a night like this that I shocked the community with a queer conceit about the burial of the rich and celebrated Squire Brewster […]
What part of speech is conceit?
Conceit can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce conceit?
Conceit is pronounced /kənˈsiːt/.
What is the plural of conceit?
The plural of conceit is conceits.

Words near conceit in the dictionary

  1. Conceicaos
  2. conceipt
  3. conceipted
  4. conceipting
  5. conceipts
  6. conceit
  7. conceited
  8. conceited as a barber's cat
  9. conceiteder
  10. conceitedest
  11. conceitedly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: conceit (page history and authors); अकड़ (Hindi) (page history and authors); conceit (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); اکڑ (Urdu) (page history and authors); conceit (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); conceit (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); conceit (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). 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.

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