1
a
: favorable opinion
especially
: excessive appreciation of one's own worth or virtue
… the landlord's conceit of his own superior knowledge … —
Adam Smith
Adam Smith
b(1)
: a result of mental activity : thought
(2)
: individual opinion
2
a
: a fanciful idea
b
: an elaborate or strained metaphor
The poem abounds in metaphysical conceits.
c
: use or presence of such conceits in poetry
d
: an organizing theme or concept
… found his conceit for the film early …—Peter Wilkinson
Peter Wilkinson… the historian's conceit that the past is forever prologue …—Leon V. Sigal
Leon V. Sigal3
: a fancy item or trifle
Conceits were fancy desserts, made either of sugar … or pastry.—Francie Owen
Francie Owen
conceited; conceiting; conceits
1
chiefly dialectal
: imagine
2
dialectal British
: to take a fancy to
3
obsolete
: conceive, understand
Examples of conceit in a Sentence
Noun
His conceit has earned him many enemies.
the conceit that the crowd at the outdoor rock concert was a vast sea of people waving to the beat of the music
Verb
after a huge meal like that, I cannot conceit eating another thing for the rest of the day
Recent Examples on the Web
Hannah-Rose Yee, Vogue, 3 Mar. 2025
Creators Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, however, take the conceit one step further by showing us not simply what happens to each protagonist but what their subjective emotional experiences feel like.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2025
Its conceit is straightforward, even frustratingly so.
—Adam Solomons, IndieWire, 17 Feb. 2025
Too bad for them, and for us, the series’ main plot conceit is indeed a mirage, a fake-out trick that crumbles upon closer inspection and isn’t developed enough.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 29 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for conceit
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Noun
Dorian Gray, conceived by former Sydney Theatre Company artistic director Kip Williams, is an electric adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s 19th-century novel, a story of the terror of one man’s vanity, whose portrait bears the scars of his conceit.
—Hannah-Rose Yee, Vogue, 3 Mar. 2025
Creators Carrie Hobson and Michael Yates, however, take the conceit one step further by showing us not simply what happens to each protagonist but what their subjective emotional experiences feel like.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 19 Feb. 2025
Its conceit is straightforward, even frustratingly so.
—Adam Solomons, IndieWire, 17 Feb. 2025
Too bad for them, and for us, the series’ main plot conceit is indeed a mirage, a fake-out trick that crumbles upon closer inspection and isn’t developed enough.
—Randy Myers, The Mercury News, 29 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for conceit
Cite this Entry
“Conceit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conceit. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.
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