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
Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
There’s too much contrivance on a scene-to-scene basis, and an inorganic feel to the general conceit.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
In fact, this episode pushes this conceit to an absurd degree.
—Noel Murray, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for conceit
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Noun
One of these is the conceit, established on page one, that the epic events described in the book are already widely known.
—Literary Hub, 6 Nov. 2025
There’s too much contrivance on a scene-to-scene basis, and an inorganic feel to the general conceit.
—Dennis Harvey, Variety, 31 Oct. 2025
In fact, this episode pushes this conceit to an absurd degree.
—Noel Murray, Vulture, 31 Oct. 2025
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
See All Example Sentences for conceit
Cite this Entry
“Conceit.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/conceit. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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