Word: conception Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *ḱe? Proto-Indo-European *ḱóm Proto-Italic *kom Proto-Italic *kom- Latin con- substratebor.? Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Italic *kapjō Old Latin kapiō Latin capiō ▲ Ancient Greek σῠλλᾰμβᾰ́νω (sŭllămbắnō)calq. Latin concipiō Proto-Indo-European *-tis Proto-Indo-European *-Hō Proto-Indo-European *-tiHō Proto-Italic *-tiō Latin -tiō Latin conceptiōlbor. Old French conceptionbor. Middle English concepcioun English conception From Middle English concepcioun, borrowed from Old French conception, from Latin conceptiō (“a comprehending, a collection, composition, an expression, also a becoming pregnant”), from concipiō, past participle conceptus (“conceive”); see conceive. Equivalent to conceive + -tion. Pronunciation: /kənˈsɛpʃən/, /kənˈsepʃən/ 1. The act of conceiving. Labels: countable, uncountable 2. The state of being conceived; the beginning. Labels: countable, uncountable 3. The fertilization of an ovum by a sperm to form a zygote. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: Some powers diuine, or els infernall, mixt Their angry ſeedes at his conception: For he was neuer ſprong of humaine race, Since with the ſpirit of his fearefull pride, He dares so doubtleſly reſolue of rule. 4. The start of pregnancy. Labels: countable, uncountable 5. The formation of a conceptus or an implanted embryo. Labels: countable, uncountable 6. The power or faculty of apprehending of forming an idea in the mind; the power of recalling a past sensation or perception; the ability to form mental abstractions. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: What the school books say about the united efforts of the two great Rossums is all a fairy tale. They used to have dreadful rows. The old atheist hadn't the slightest conception of industrial matters, and the end of it was that young Rossum shut him up in some laboratory or other and let him fritter the time away with his monstrosities, while he himself started on the business from an engineer's point of view. 7. An image, idea, or notion formed in the mind; a concept, plan or design. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: "Around the World in Eighty Days" once had so much appeal to the imagination that Jules Verne wrote a novel about it. The latest proposal is to girdle the globe in three months in a flying machine. The practicability of such a flight is here discussed by an expert. Mr. Woodhouse is a member of the Aero Club of America and managing editor of "Flying". ¶ When the Aero Club of America received the news that the Panama-Pacific International Exposition had decided to offer $300,000 in prize money for a ninety-day aircraft race around the world, no one connected with aeronautics laughed at the conception or called it the dream of a Verne or a Wells. A map of the course indicates that to circumaviate the globe will mean flights over mountains and deserts, through storms, and across seas. But formidable obstacles in all of these classifications have been surmounted before by airmen, and, of course, can be surmounted again. Example: Elegant brick and stone buildings, with iron and glass canopies and decorative wooden scalloping and fencing—all evidencing care on the part of the architect to produce a pleasing, well-planned building—were submerged beneath a profusion of ill-conceived additions and camouflaged by vulgar paint schemes; and the original conception was lost. 8. Something conceived or designed. Labels: countable, uncountable Example: The figure was placed on a low pedestal, sufficiently raised from the carpet on four plain wooden legs for all the space underneath to be clearly visible. The body was a squat, cross-legged conception, typical of an Indian deity […]