conceit

1 an elaborate or fanciful way of expressing something <the conceit that the crowd at the outdoor rock concert was a vast sea of people waving to the beat of the music> Synonyms metaphor Related Words device; analogy, circumlocution, code word, crank, dead metaphor, euphemism, simile; catachresis, mixed metaphor Phrases figure of speech

2 a conception or image created by the imagination and having no objective reality <his dream of swimming in the Olympics is nothing more than a conceit> Synonyms chimera, fantasy, daydream, delusion, dream, fancy, figment, hallucination, illusion, nonentity, phantasm (also fantasm), pipe dream, unreality, visionRelated Words ignis fatuus, mirage, will-o'-the-wisp; brainchild, idea; concoction, fable, fabrication, fiction, invention; envisaging, imaging, visualization; cloud-cuckoo-land, cloudland, Shangri-la, utopia; daymare, nightmareNear Antonyms actuality, fact, reality

3 an often unjustified feeling of being pleased with oneself or with one's situation or achievements <even though her novels are enormously popular, the writer is more prone to insecurity than to conceit> Synonyms amour propre, bighead, complacency, complacence, conceitedness, ego, egotism, pomposity, pompousness, pride, pridefulness, self-admiration, self-assumption, self-conceit, self-congratulation, self-esteem, self-glory, self-importance, self-love, self-opinion, self-satisfaction, smugness, swelled head, swellheadedness, vaingloriousness, vainglory, vainness, vanityRelated Words assurance, confidence, self-assurance, self-confidence; self-righteousness; arrogance, disdainfulness, haughtiness, imperiousness, lordliness, self-assertion, snobbishness, superciliousness, superiority; hubris, overconfidence, presumption; pretense (or pretence), pretension, pretentiousness; egoism, self-centeredness, selfishness; self-pride, self-respectNear Antonyms diffidence, self-doubt; self-disgust, self-hate, self-loathing; altruism, unselfishness; bashfulness, demureness, shyness, timidity, timidness; passiveness, passivityAntonyms humbleness, humility, modesty