conceptions

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...

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