1
as in winked
to secretly sympathize with or pretend ignorance of something improper or unlawful
the principal connived at all the school absences that were recorded on the day of the city's celebration of its Super Bowl victory
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in plotted
to engage in a secret plan to accomplish evil or unlawful ends
suspects that his coworkers are conniving to get him fired
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for connived
Verb
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Stayton then reportedly winked and told the protester they'd be charged with a felony.—
Jolene Almendarez,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
12 Nov. 2025 -
Farther up, on Observatory Hill, tall cryptomeria trees were silhouetted in the darkening evening, and down in the valleys, lights winked on like reflections of the planets and stars appearing in the sky.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
27 Oct. 2025
Verb
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But as his fraudulent crypto empire crumbled in November 2022, the crypto founder plotted a rightward shift.—
Leo Schwartz,
Fortune,
24 Feb. 2026
-
They're then plotted into multi-dimensional space.—
Sharyn Alfonsi,
CBS News,
23 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Injuries over the past year may have left him unavailable for selection, but there were times last season when his claims were ignored and others like Newcastle United’s Dan Burn and Liverpool’s Jarell Quansah (now at Bayer Leverkusen) were selected.—
Patrick Boyland,
New York Times,
26 Feb. 2026
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For months, Bill Clinton, 79, and Hillary Clinton, 78, largely ignored the matter in public but that became harder to sustain in December when the former president was featured prominently in the first batch of Epstein files.—
STEVEN SLOAN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS,
Arkansas Online,
26 Feb. 2026
Verb
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An au pair who schemed with her employer-turned-lover to kill his wife and another man received a 10-year sentence on Friday.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
13 Feb. 2026
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Schlossnagle schemed in the offseason to ensure the reigning SEC champs would be deeper at all positions after a 44-14 finish.—
Cedric Golden,
Austin American Statesman,
1 Feb. 2026
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Cite this Entry
“Connived.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/connived. Accessed 1 Mar. 2026.
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