How to use conclave in a sentence

12 example sentences · noun, verb

Conclave means the set of apartments in which cardinals are secluded while the process to elect a pope takes place. Example: “The cardinalate under a maximum age composes the conclave which elects the pope.”

Examples of conclave by meaning

nounA closed, private, or secret meeting, especially one of an ecclesiastical nature.

More than 2,500 of globalisation's movers and shakers gather for their annual four-day mountaintop conclave this week, aware that the world is still being shaken by the events of half a decade ago.2014 January 18, Larry Elliott, Jill Treanor, “Davos faces up to weak growth and rising inequality”, in Alan Rusbridger, editor, The...
Still, it was the first real sign of succession planning — a Condé conclave, as one editor joked — and a reminder that Ms.2025 June 27, Michael M. Grynbaum, “The Concorde-and-Caviar Era of Condé Nast, When Magazines Ruled the Earth”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

verbTo participate in a closed, private, or secret meeting.

The tenants, conclaving together of an evening on doorsteps, had come to the conclusion that the Universal Thrift Club was the very contrivance which they lacked for years.1911 February 23, Arnold Bennett, “His Burglary”, in The Card: A Story of Adventure in the Five Towns (Methuen’s Colonial Library), 2nd...
So Nit stood guard, pretending to be busy but keeping a lookout for the nuns, who were absent today, conclaving over who would take over Sister Patricia Margaret's stewardship.2002 February, Kay Kenyon, chapter 15, in Maximum Ice (A Bantam Spectra Book), New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, →ISBN, page 285

verbOf a cardinal: to attend a closed assembly to elect a pope.

At Cardinal Verdi's urging the College of Cardinals at last conclaved behind locked doors, slipping into the heavily guarded Sistine Chapel through the underground tunnels for their deliberations.2002, Brent Dorian Carpenter, “Conclave”, in Man of the Cloth, [Bloomington, Ind.]: AuthorHouse, →ISBN, page 100
"But I request that you remain conclaved, until I consult the man whom we elected.2007, Peter M. Sciarrotta, “Seeing is Believing”, in The Seven Angels of the Apocalypse, 2nd edition, Bloomington, Ind.; Milton Keynes...

More sentences with conclave

The cardinalate under a maximum age composes the conclave which elects the pope.From the entry cardinalate
The great conclave of dragons will hear your petition.2018, Justin Newland, “Pacing the Dragon”, in The Old Dragon’s Head, Kibworth Beauchamp, Leicestershire: Matador, →ISBN, page 251. From the entry Zhongguo
Instead he was going to remain in the small room in the Santa Marta hostel in the Vatican where he had stayed during the conclave.2025 April 21, Peter Stanford, “Pope Francis obituary”, in The Guardian. From the entry hostel
This conclave spanned four full days.1984, Ian Watson, The Book of the River, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, published 1985, →ISBN, page 138. From the entry guildmistress
For the conclave, the camerlengo is now responsible for ensuring an “orderly election and its privacy”, according to Universi Dominici Gregis—the apostolic constitution governing papal succession.2025 May 3, Amy Kazmin, Jude Webber, “The cardinal running the papal conclave”, in FT Weekend, London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN…. From the entry camerlengo
I had the impression, not uncommon to foreigners in Russia, that my entrance had interrupted a conversation of timeworthy importance, a secret meeting perhaps, a conclave.2012, Godfrey Blunden, A Room on the Route. From the entry timeworthy

Meaning of conclave

noun The set of apartments in which cardinals are secluded while the process to elect a pope takes place.
noun A group of cardinals assembled to elect a new pope.
noun The cardinals of the Roman Catholic Church collectively.

Full definition of conclave

Questions about conclave in a sentence

How do you use conclave in a sentence?: Conclave is used as a noun and verb. For example: “The cardinalate under a maximum age composes the conclave which elects the pope.”
What is a short sentence with conclave?: “This conclave spanned four full days.”
What does conclave mean?: Conclave means the set of apartments in which cardinals are secluded while the process to elect a pope takes place.

Adapted from Wiktionary: conclave (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use conclave in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/conclave. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.