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