conspiracy

English Online Dictionary. What means conspiracy‎? What does conspiracy mean?

English

Etymology

From Middle English conspiracie, from Anglo-Norman conspiracie, from Latin cōnspīrātiō. Doublet of conspiration.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈspɪɹəsi/

Noun

conspiracy (countable and uncountable, plural conspiracies)

1. An agreement or arrangement between multiple parties to do something harmful, immoral or subversive; an instance of collusion.
2. (law) An agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future.
3. (loosely) A secret agreement to do something.
4. (loosely) An agreement to work together to bring something about; an act or instance of conspiring.
5. (rare) A group of ravens.
6. (rare) A group of lemurs.
7. (linguistics) A situation in which different phonological or grammatical rules lead to similar or related outcomes.
8. (by ellipsis, proscribed) A conspiracy theory; a hypothesis alleging conspiracy.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Verb

conspiracy (third-person singular simple present conspiracies, present participle conspiracying, simple past and past participle conspiracied)

1. (rare, proscribed) To conspire.

Further reading

• “Conspiracy (theories)” by Mark Liberman, published by Language Log (2022-08-18)
• “conspiracy”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.