conception

Noun

conception (countable and uncountable, plural conceptions)

1. The act of conceiving.
2. The state of being conceived; the beginning.
3. The fertilization of an ovum by a sperm to form a zygote.
   • Some powers diuine, or els infernall, mixt
     Their angry ſeedes at his conception:
     For he was neuer ſprong of humaine race,
     Since with the ſpirit of his fearefull pride,
     He dares so doubtleſly reſolue of rule.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC...
4. The start of pregnancy.
5. The formation of a conceptus or an implanted embryo.
6. The power or faculty of apprehending of forming an idea in the mind; the power of recalling a past sensation or perception; the ability to form mental abstractions.
   • What the school books say about the united efforts of the two great Rossums is all a fairy tale. They used to have dreadful rows. The old atheist hadn't the slightest conception of industrial matters, and the end of it was that young Rossum shut him up in some laboratory or other and let him...c. 1921 (date written), Karel Čapek, translated by Paul Selver, R.U.R. (Rossum’s Universal Robots): A Fantastic Melodrama […], Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1923, →OCLC, Act...
7. An image, idea, or notion formed in the mind; a concept, plan or design.
   • "Around the World in Eighty Days" once had so much appeal to the imagination that Jules Verne wrote a novel about it. The latest proposal is to girdle the globe in three months in a flying machine. The practicability of such a flight is here discussed by an expert. Mr. Woodhouse is a member of the...1914 February 28, Henry Woodhouse, “Girdling the Globe by Motor-Driven Aircraft”, in Collier's, volume 52, number 24, page 13
   • Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint...1962 October, Brian Haresnape, “Focus on B.R. passenger stations”, in Modern Railways, pages 250–251
8. Something conceived or designed.
   • The figure was placed on a low pedestal, sufficiently raised from the carpet on four plain wooden legs for all the space underneath to be clearly visible. The body was a squat, cross-legged conception, typical of an Indian deity […]1923, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], “(please specify the page)”, in The Eyes of Max Carrados, London: Grant Richards, →OCLC