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
Adam B. Vary, Variety, 1 June 2025
As an attention-grabbing stunt, the conceit still works.
—ArsTechnica, 31 May 2025
Shows like Modern Family and Parks and Recreation use the style without ever delving into the question of who is filming the characters and why, while others fully lean into the conceit.
—Sabienna Bowman, People.com, 26 May 2025
By virtue of its basic conceit — after narrowly escaping a disaster with the help of a premonition, a group of people are stalked and killed by Death itself — almost all of these movies end with a high body count and no one making it out alive.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 22 May 2025
See All Example Sentences for conceit
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Noun
Although several of Netflix’s properties have developed robust fan bases, the overt conceit driving Tudum is that there is, somehow, a massive cohort of Netflix super fans with a rabid appetite for news about all of its programming.
—Adam B. Vary, Variety, 1 June 2025
As an attention-grabbing stunt, the conceit still works.
—ArsTechnica, 31 May 2025
Shows like Modern Family and Parks and Recreation use the style without ever delving into the question of who is filming the characters and why, while others fully lean into the conceit.
—Sabienna Bowman, People.com, 26 May 2025
By virtue of its basic conceit — after narrowly escaping a disaster with the help of a premonition, a group of people are stalked and killed by Death itself — almost all of these movies end with a high body count and no one making it out alive.
—Louis Peitzman, Vulture, 22 May 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 5 Jun. 2025.
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