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conception Definition

con·cep·tion (kən sep′s̸hən)

noun

  1. a conceiving or being conceived
  2. that which is conceived; specif., an embryo or fetus
  3. the beginning of some process, chain of events, etc.
  4. the act, process, or power of conceiving mentally; formulation of ideas, esp. of abstractions
  5. a mental impression; general notion; concept
  6. an original idea, design, plan, etc.

Etymology: ME concepcioun < OFr conception < L conceptio, a comprehending, conception < conceptus: see conceive

conception Related Forms
con·cep′·tional adjective
conception Synonyms

conception

n.

  1. The act of conceiving mentally

    apprehension, comprehension, imagining, speculating, conceptualization, originating, devising, formulating, bethinking, dreaming, cogitating, deliberating, fancying, philosophizing, realization, considering, musing, speculation, envisaging, understanding, cognition, perception, mental grasp, apperception, formulation of an idea, formulation of a principle, formulation of a mental image, hatching; see also thought 1.

  2. The act of conceiving physically

    inception, impregnation, insemination; see fertilization 2.

  3. A mental image

    representation, impression, idea, notion; see opinion 1, thought 2.

  4. Something that is conceived

    original idea, design, plan, interpretation; see interpretation 2, plan 2. See syn. study at idea.

conception Usage Examples

Preposition: of

  • mathematics: In the case study we witness Randy working on these new ideas and fitting them with his former conceptions of mathematics.
  • morality: Now her conception of morality is ' silent ' on the question of suicide.
  • autonomy: Some of these concerns arise from the reliance placed on a liberal conception of autonomy as the necessary justification for respecting anticipatory decision-making.
  • liberty: I am not arguing about what people ought to do but about what a certain conception of liberty entails.
  • socialism: These are two completely different, and, in the last analysis, directly opposed conceptions of socialism.
  • causation: Ignorance and fear of the unknown combined with a false conception of causation and cessation resulted in many Elizabethan superstitions.

Converse of object

  • assist: Information: Several cases of children born from assisted conception developing tumors have come to light.
  • differ: These differences stem ultimately from their differing conceptions of God and of His relation to the world.
  • compete: Also Karen Armstrong writes a column that argues: We can defuse this tension between competing conceptions of the sacred.
  • articulate: The question whether European integration can articulate a conception of the social independent of national society is a major challenge for social theory.

Adjective modifier

  • virginal: But that is quite unlike the accounts of the virginal conception in the Gospels.
  • immaculate: But you believe in the immaculate conception of everyone; Catholics believe in the immaculate conception only of Our Blessed Lady.
  • teenage: The prevention of early teenage conceptions is being addressed through a separate national program.
  • miraculous: The child is said to be from the stars, implying a miraculous conception of sorts.
  • under-18: Fifty per cent of under-18 conceptions occur in the 20 % of wards with the highest rates.
  • Marxist: Does Craipeau see sufficient reasons to revise the Marxist conception on this capital point?

Noun used with modifier

  • materialist: This was established under a materialist conception of history.
  • absolutist: Most of these teachers were also found to hold absolutist conceptions of mathematics; images that matched their teaching styles.
  • commonsense: Is ` instrumentalism ' the only other possible view of the status of our commonsense conception of the mental?
  • idealist: In this paper, we adopt a legal idealist conception: that law is necessarily conceptually connected to morality.
conception Quotes

The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of thesituation evoking a new behavior which makes the originally false conception come true. The specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error.

—Merton, Robert King

Philosophy is to be studied, not for the sake of any definite answers to its questions, since no definite answerscan, asa rule, be knowntobetrue, but rather for the sake of the questions themselves; because these questions enlarge our conception of what is possible, enrich our intellectual imagination, and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculation; but above all because, through the greatness of the universe which philosophy contemplates, the mind also is rendered great, and becomes capable of that union with the universe which constitutes its highest good.

—Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be for thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Yet her conception of God was certainly not orthodox. She felt towards Him as she might have felt towards a glorified sanitary engineer; and in some of her speculations she seems hardly to distinguish between the Deity and the Drains.

—Strachey, (Giles) Lytton