Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
- n. A group of conspirators.
- n. Law An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
- n. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A combination of persons for an evil purpose; an agreement between two or more persons to commit in concert something reprehensible, injurious, or illegal; particularly, a combination to commit treason, or excite sedition or insurrection; a plot; concerted treason. In legal usage a conspiracy is a combination of two or more persons, by some concerted action, to accomplish some criminal or unlawful purpose, or to accomplish some purpose not in itself criminal or unlawful by criminal or unlawful means. The term was formerly used in English law more specifically to designate an agreement between two or more persons falsely and maliciously to indict, or procure to be indicted, an innocent person of felony.
- n. Hence Any concurrence in action; combination in bringing about a given result.
- n. Synonyms Intrigue, cabal, machination.
- n. An ancient writ which was issued against parties alleged to be guilty of a conspiracy to indict a party for treason or a felony.
Wiktionary
- n. The act of two or more persons, called conspirators, working secretly to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations.
- n. law An agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future.
- n. A group of ravens.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A combination of people for an evil purpose; an agreement, between two or more persons, to commit a crime in concert, as treason; a plot.
- n. A concurence or general tendency, as of circumstances, to one event, as if by agreement.
- n. (Law) An agreement, manifesting itself in words or deeds, by which two or more persons confederate to do an unlawful act, or to use unlawful to do an act which is lawful; confederacy.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose
- n. a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot)
- n. a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act
Etymologies
- The verb conspire generally accepted of coming from the Latin roots con ("with"), and spiro ("I breathe") — so 'to conspire' literally means 'to breathe together'. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English conspiracie, from Anglo-Norman, probably alteration of Old French conspiration, from Latin cōnspīrātiō, cōnspīrātiōn-, from cōnspīrātus, past participle of cōnspīrāre, to conspire; see conspire. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It's a conspiracy theory about conspiracy theories, about the powerful mythology of the greatest crime of the American century.”
“Your Palin conspiracy is in left field according to LL.”
Paulson stadium deal funnels Portland tax money to New York (Jack Bog's Blog)
“Barrie Zwicker, Canadian media commentator and journalist: "At a certain point, the term conspiracy-theory becomes just an excuse not to do your homework.”
“Conspiracy Theories: The Philosophical Debate, the term conspiracy theory started to carry negative connotations after the philosopher Karl Popper wrote, during the Third Reich, that conspiracy theories propelled the paranoid ideologies that gave rise to totalitarian regimes such as that of Adolf Hitler.”
“The term conspiracy is not limited to an unlawful scheme or plot.”
“The word "conspiracy," a character notes, derives from the Latin for "breathe together.”
“Objectors gave spirited critiques of what they described as a conspiracy against culture itself.”
“He said sectarian strife is putting the country in peril and the government is trying to save it from what he calls a conspiracy.”
Voice of America: Egypt to Use 'Iron Hand' for Security After Deadly Sectarian Violence
“He was as a Senate Leader first among equals in what we call a conspiracy of whispers.”
“He was, as the Senate leader, first among equals in what we call a conspiracy of whisperers, people who thought that Hillary Clinton would be devastating as the nominee of the Democratic Party, that she would probably lose the general election and would hurt Democrats down-ballot.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘conspiracy’.
-
GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
-
JURI - crimes and offences
Don't commit any of these if you can
firearms trafficking, serious and organ..., trafficking in hu..., illegal shipment ..., cybercrime, money laundering, sale of counterfe..., sale of dangerous..., smuggling, infraction, corruption, organised crime and 153 more...
-
gre
municipal, whit, dissembler, berate, liberally, embellish, dissimilitude, histrionics, flamboyance, bombastic, bovine, calumny and 142 more...
-
AFET - diplomacy
broker a peace ac..., client state, deadlocked peace ..., embassy, freeze, goodwill ambassador, hinterland, interfere in dome..., intervene personally, maintain technica..., mediation, no business as usual and 670 more...
-
Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
-
Dirty Deeds, Acts & Villainous Arcana
Villains, evildoers, and the wonderful words to describe them.
putsch, internecine, galère, stygian, infernal, opprobrium, anathema, bruit, scurrility, mulct, misanthropic, invective and 102 more...
-
Conspiracies
...And all that heavy metal.
kurt cobain, courtney love, tom grant, exodus rehab clinic, california, seattle, record industry e..., military industri..., mic, yugoslavia, heroin, credit cards and 202 more...
-
JURI - courtroom speak
Legal glossary with special focus on courtroom vocabulary
accused, acquittal, ADA, adjournment, adjudication, affidavit, affirmed, aggravated range, aggravating factors, allegation, alleged, answer and 794 more...
-
things (bad)
things you may fall victim to.
goto things (good)
( randomness, events, situations, nouns )treachery, quagmire, overdose, bombing, suicide, homicide, spam, prison, acute renal failure, bad programming, being pants'd, bleeding out and 37 more...
-
The Enterprise
enterprise, gameplan, goal, gimmick, intendment of int..., lay of the land, machination, notions, object, objectives, pitch, picture and 54 more...
-
New Word Order
goal is governmen..., gravedigger, tragedy, hope, state department, united nations, disarmament, new world order, slavery, eugenics, unesco, illuminati and 53 more...
-
Official Misconduct
Words describing types of misconduct by those in public office.
malversation, embezzlement, peculation, racketeering, jobbery, misappropriation, defalcation, venality, favouritism, favoritism, nepotism, gerrymandering and 44 more...
-
stuff i had to look up for english class
purged, steeped, conspiracy, quaking, excommunication, marvels, disposition, effrontery, gait, indignation, transfixed, befuddled and 8 more...
-
Words
Words.
fnord, THEY, ExorcisE, subvert, conspiracy, chupacabra, snollygoster, 2+3
-
The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
-
hedges's Words
wii, crepuscule, adumbrate, concatenation, sufi, qawwali, furry, riot, mellifluous, conspiracy, etymology, tea cozy and 369 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for conspiracy.

bilby "Organizing a community around a basic issue of survival, such as food, makes a lot of nitty gritty sense. After your conspiracy gets off the ground and looks permanent, you should seek to expand it to include more members and an emergency food fund should be set up in case something happens in the community. There should also be a fund whereby the conspiracy can sponsor free community dinners tied into celebrations. Get it together and join the fight for a world-wide food conspiracy."
- Abbie Hoffman, 'Steal This Book', 1971. Feb 19, 2009
oroboros CONSPIRACY: Theories of mortal conspiracies reflect ordinary consciousness' secular attempt to tie everything together; it is the ventriloquist dummy's cellular recognition of unidentified forces behind the words coming out of his mouth. --Jan Cox Jan 24, 2008
skipvia A flock of ravens Nov 15, 2007