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conceive

verb

Simple meaning

To develop; to form in the mind.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kuhnseev

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

kənˈsiv

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

verb

  1. transitive

    To develop; to form in the mind; to imagine.

  2. ambitransitive with ofditransitive

    To imagine (as); to have a conception of; to form a representation of.

  3. ambitransitive

    To have a child; to become pregnant (with).

  4. ambitransitive

    Have the idea for

    “He conceived of a robot that would help paralyzed patients.”

  5. transitive

    To understand (someone).

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced
Frequency
Uncommon
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: To develop; to form in the mind; to imagine.

Used this way, conceive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use conceive

  • “He conceived of a robot that would help paralyzed patients.”verb

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

easily conceivehardly conceivehumbly conceive

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • concealverbDerived verb

    Prevent from being seen or discovered.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • conceive ofverbCompound term

    Form a mental image of something that is not present or that is not the case.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: to develop

consider

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.