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
Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2025
That conceit, along with Orwell’s state of mind during his final months, has been scrutinized for decades—by high-school students, biographers, and other documentarians.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
More so than Miloš Forman’s 1981 film adaptation, the musical honors Doctorow’s splendid conceit of placing real-life historical figures – the anarchist Emma Goldman, the illusionist Harry Houdini, the scandalous vaudeville star Evelyn Nesbit – into the fictional world of Ragtime.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 16 Oct. 2025
The most responsible way to communicate the delight is to share a few details but leapfrog over their place in the plot and head straight to the mighty conceit that connects them.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 15 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for conceit
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Noun
The doc conceit falls away, replaced by a shallow attempt at the eerily elegant, off-kilter horror style codified by 2018’s Hereditary.
—Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 21 Oct. 2025
That conceit, along with Orwell’s state of mind during his final months, has been scrutinized for decades—by high-school students, biographers, and other documentarians.
—Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 21 Oct. 2025
More so than Miloš Forman’s 1981 film adaptation, the musical honors Doctorow’s splendid conceit of placing real-life historical figures – the anarchist Emma Goldman, the illusionist Harry Houdini, the scandalous vaudeville star Evelyn Nesbit – into the fictional world of Ragtime.
—Greg Evans, Deadline, 16 Oct. 2025
The most responsible way to communicate the delight is to share a few details but leapfrog over their place in the plot and head straight to the mighty conceit that connects them.
—Richard Brody, New Yorker, 15 Oct. 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 23 Oct. 2025.
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