1
as in metaphors
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 & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in illusions
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 & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in imagines
to form a mental picture of
after a huge meal like that, I cannot conceit eating another thing for the rest of the day
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of conceits
Justin Chang, New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2026
One of Yellow Letters’s most interesting conceits is that German cities play Turkish ones throughout.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2026
There’s something about those ideas that are big, silly, cinematic, surreal conceits that drew me in.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 24 Nov. 2025
One of Weapons’ conceits is its chapter structure centering on particular characters, and sources say that Cregger actually had a chapter focused on Gladys and some of her backstory.
—Pamela McClintock, HollywoodReporter, 22 Aug. 2025
All the conceits of a true-crime film are there – the lead detective interviews, shaky images from police-cams, the salacious headlines, the nauseating crime scene photos, the TV news reports, teary interviews with friends and family.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2025
Noun
In those earlier pictures, metaphysical conceits became visual and dramatic gambits as the filmmakers set out to colonize the vast interior worlds of, respectively, the mind and the spirit.
—Justin Chang, New Yorker, 6 Mar. 2026
One of Yellow Letters’s most interesting conceits is that German cities play Turkish ones throughout.
—Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2026
There’s something about those ideas that are big, silly, cinematic, surreal conceits that drew me in.
—John Hopewell, Variety, 24 Nov. 2025
One of Weapons’ conceits is its chapter structure centering on particular characters, and sources say that Cregger actually had a chapter focused on Gladys and some of her backstory.
—Pamela McClintock, HollywoodReporter, 22 Aug. 2025
All the conceits of a true-crime film are there – the lead detective interviews, shaky images from police-cams, the salacious headlines, the nauseating crime scene photos, the TV news reports, teary interviews with friends and family.
—Randy Myers, Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for conceits
Noun
-
The artist has described works like this one as metaphors for the violence of colonialism in her home country.—
Alex Greenberger,
ARTnews.com,
4 May 2026
-
Ebel even alternates between hockey and baseball metaphors.—
Jordan Blum,
Fortune,
4 May 2026
Noun
-
Masks are slipping and illusions are fading.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
6 May 2026
-
The United States, searching for self-definition but loath to lose its illusions—its innocence—needed all of this as a counterpoint.—
Sebastian Smee,
New Yorker,
4 May 2026
Verb
-
One tweet features an AI cover of a fake Slayr album called BURGERMAN that imagines him as a half-burger, half-human hybrid engulfed in a hellish flood of grease and cheese splatter.—
Kieran Press-Reynolds,
Pitchfork,
8 May 2026
-
In the year 2027 (which is somehow just one year from now, please stop, passage of time), Children of Men imagines a world where women have been infertile for years, dooming humanity to a slow extinction.—
Grace Dean,
Space.com,
2 May 2026
Noun
-
Their shared trip gradually turns into a confrontation with their own lives, relationships and visions of the future.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
6 May 2026
-
There are many competing visions of how technology and military strategy should be combined in the Gulf’s waters, some of which cross into the bizarre.—
Mohammed Sergie,
semafor.com,
4 May 2026
Verb
-
Initially aimed at Service Operation Vessels (SOVs) for wind farms and Platform Supply Vessels (PSVs) for the oil industry, Vard envisions this technology eventually forming a charging infrastructure along the entire Norwegian coast.—
Mrigakshi Dixit,
Interesting Engineering,
6 May 2026
-
The revised Treasury-Fed accord Warsh envisions would in some, still-unspecified, way govern the size and potentially composition of the Fed's balance sheet.—
Steve Liesman,Matt Peterson,
CNBC,
4 May 2026
Noun
-
The sophisticated set by ace production designer David Gropman enables Altman’s perpetually moving and zooming camera to drift in and out of two-way mirrors that depict memories and fantasies with both immediacy and a gauzy nostalgia.—
Jim Hemphill,
IndieWire,
1 May 2026
-
But what Danielson says was intended as a symbolic protest escalated dramatically amid paranoid fantasies, prosaic miscommunications, and the false report of a gun.—
Tessa Stuart,
Rolling Stone,
23 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
Inspired by her magical storytelling and the world around him, Julián dreams of becoming a mermaid – sparking a dazzling journey from the borough’s sunlit streets to the mystical depths of the sea.—
Leo Barraclough,
Variety,
28 Apr. 2026
-
Josie Maran dreams of an ice cream truck.—
Kara McGrath,
Allure,
22 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Just think of all those vacant Madonnas, structurally perfect compositions, and obedient daydreams of antiquity.—
Zachary Fine,
New Yorker,
20 Apr. 2026
-
The family car is a Mazda, but Zac daydreams of a Bugatti Veyron.—
Frank Langfitt,
NPR,
4 Apr. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Conceits.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/conceits. Accessed 12 May. 2026.
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