Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A general idea or understanding of something: synonym: idea.
  • noun A plan or original idea.
  • noun A unifying idea or theme, especially for a product or service.
  • adjective Having an experimental or strikingly different design, especially to test or demonstrate new features.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A general notion; the predicate of a (possible) judgment; a complex of characters; the immediate object of thought in simple apprehension. Conception is applied to both the act and the object in conceiving; concept is restricted to the object.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun An abstract general conception; a notion; a universal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An understanding retained in the mind, from experience, reasoning and/or imagination; a generalization (generic, basic form), or abstraction (mental impression), of a particular set of instances or occurrences (specific, though different, recorded manifestations of the concept).
  • noun programming In generic programming, a description of supported operations on a type, including their syntax and semantics.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Late Latin conceptus, from Latin, past participle of concipere, to conceive; see conceive.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin conceptus ("a thought, purpose, also a conceiving, etc."), from concipere, present active infinitive of concipiō ("to take in, conceive"); see conceive.

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Examples

  • On a related note, a couple weeks ago at the shop I was discussing the fact that, when the Earth Prime Superboy was introduced during the original Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover shenanigans, the only purpose he really served was 1) to represent the concept of Earth Prime i.e. "our" Earth), and 2) to act as a symbolic "goodbye" to the Superboy concept* at the end of the series.

    Archive 2006-01-15 2006

  • On a related note, a couple weeks ago at the shop I was discussing the fact that, when the Earth Prime Superboy was introduced during the original Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover shenanigans, the only purpose he really served was 1) to represent the concept of Earth Prime i.e. "our" Earth), and 2) to act as a symbolic "goodbye" to the Superboy concept* at the end of the series.

    Archive 2006-01-15 2006

  • Movies live or die now by whether a certain concept is tracking well for opening weekend.

    More Kick-Ass 2 Details | /Film 2010

  • The other paintings, while excellent, don't encapsulate the title concept as effectively as that little sleeping dino - in my 'umble opinion.

    Color and Light Book James Gurney 2010

  • As for the remaining four songs, 'Wrapped Around Your Finger' and 'Tea In The Sahara' are doomy ciphers, the former possibly about marriage, the latter open to a handful of interpretations, none of them exactly upbeat, while 'Synchronicity I' is a trifle explaining the title concept and the monster hit 'Every Breath You Take', is ostensibly a trite love song with it's icy and obsessive core just barely concealed.

    Synchronicity 1983

  • The main concept is that of an international solidarity expressed in practice through worldwide division of labor: free trade is the principal point in the program of internationalism.

    Christian Lange - Nobel Lecture 1921

  • Harding-which had always seemed like the natural climax of the season-was premised on the title concept of the "return to normalcy": that is, after a period in which the country suffered its involvement in the gruesome Great War and went through a period of reformist upheaval at home, it was time for everyone to calm down and focus on quietly prospering.

    TIME.com: Top Stories James Poniewozik 2010

  • But the concept is the same as the excise tax – make people feel the cost of spending MORE on health insurance, and by extension, health care.

    Matthew Yglesias » Saving Money vs Spending Less Money 2010

  • Buried in the concept is the sense that one's loyalty must not be plural.

    Archive 2010-01-01 2010

  • Your concept is there, but I think it needs a little tweaking.

    Comic Books vs. Natural Selection 2009

Comments

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  • The concept is this:

    a group of accident prone, dimension-tripping troubadors with amnesia, challenging all comers in the big city.

    April 25, 2008