conception

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Formation of a viable zygote by the union of the male sperm and female ovum; fertilization.
2. n. The entity formed by the union of the male sperm and female ovum; an embryo or zygote.
3. n. The ability to form or understand mental concepts and abstractions.
4. n. Something conceived in the mind; a concept, plan, design, idea, or thought. See Synonyms at idea.
5. n. Archaic A beginning; a start.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act or power of conceiving in the mind, or of forming a concept; that which is conceived in the mind. A product of the imaginative or inventive faculty.
2. n. In philosophy: The act of conceiving or of forming a concept, or the concept itself; a notion.
3. n. Improperly, the faculty of reproductive imagination.
4. n. Thought, notion, or idea, in a loose sense: as, you have no conception how clever he is.
5. n. A fanciful thought; a conceit.
6. n. The act of becoming pregnant; the beginning of pregnancy; the inception of the life of an embryo; hence, figuratively, beginning; origination.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of conceiving.
2. n. The state of being conceived; the beginning.
3. n. The fertilization of an ovum by a sperm to form a zygote.
4. n. The start of pregnancy.
5. n. The formation of a conceptus or an implanted embryo.
6. n. 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.
7. n. An image, idea, or notion formed in the mind; a concept, plan or design.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of conceiving in the womb; the initiation of an embryonic animal life.
2. n. The state of being conceived; beginning.
3. n. The power or faculty of apprehending of forming an idea in the mind; the power of recalling a past sensation or perception.
4. n. The formation in the mind of an image, idea, or notion, apprehension.
5. n. The image, idea, or notion of any action or thing which is formed in the mind; a concept; a notion; a universal; the product of a rational belief or judgment. See Concept.
6. n. Idea; purpose; design.
7. n. obsolete Conceit; affected sentiment or thought.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an abstract or general idea inferred or derived from specific instances
2. n. the creation of something in the mind
3. n. the event that occurred at the beginning of something
4. n. the act of becoming pregnant; fertilization of an ovum by a spermatozoon