conspire

See also: conspiré

English

Etymology

From Middle English conspiren, from Old French conspirer, from Latin conspirare, conspīrō, from con- (combining form of cum (“with”)) + spīrō (“breathe”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kənˈspaɪə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aɪə(ɹ)

Verb

conspire (third-person singular simple present conspires, present participle conspiring, simple past and past participle conspired)

1. (intransitive) To secretly plot or make plans together, often with the intention to bring bad or illegal results; to collude, to connive, to plot.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Genesis 37:18:

     They conspired against [Joseph] to slay him.

   • 2015, Mustafa Khattab, transl., The Clear Quran, →ISBN, surah 28, verse 20:

     And there came a man, rushing from the farthest end of the city. He said, “O Moses! The chiefs are actually conspiring against you to put you to death, so leave ˹the city˺. I really advise you ˹to do so˺.”

2. (intransitive) To agree, to concur to one end.
   • (Can we date this quote by Roscommon and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)

     The press, the pulpit, and the stage / Conspire to censure and expose our age.

   • 1744, Georg Friedrich Händel, Hercules, act 3, scene 5:

     I feel my vanquish'd heart conspire
     To crown a flame by Heav'n approv'd.

3. (transitive) To work together to bring about.

   Rain and sweat conspired to smudge her mascara.

   • c. 1600, John Ayliffe, Satires:

     Angry clouds conspire your overthrow.

Synonyms

• (secretly plot): collogue

Derived terms

• coconspire
• conspiringly
• conspirophile
• nonconspiring
• unconspired
• unconspiring

Related terms

• co-conspirator
• conspiracy
• conspiration
• conspirator
• inspire
• spirit

Translations

to secretly plot

Albanian: komplotoj (sq) Arabic: تَآمَرَ (taʔāmara), اِئْتَمَرَ (ar) (iʔtamara) Armenian: please add this translation if you can Asturian: maquilar, guarnir, urdir Bulgarian: заговорнича (bg) (zagovorniča) Catalan: conspirar (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 勾结 (zh) (gōujié) Danish: sammensværge sig Dutch: samenzweren (nl) Esperanto: konspiri, komploti Finnish: juonitella (fi) Galician: urdir (gl) Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: sich verschwören (de) Greek: συνωμοτώ (el) (synomotó) Hungarian: összeesküszik (hu), konspirál (hu) Indonesian: berkomplot (id), bersekongkol (id) Japanese: 企む (ja) (takuramu) Kashubian: kònspirowac Khmer: please add this translation if you can Latin: coniūrō Malayalam: ഗൂഢാലോചന നടത്തുക (gūḍhālōcana naṭattuka) Maori: whakatakoto kara, kakai Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Occitan: conspirar Polish: spiskować (pl) impf, konspirować (pl) impf, kombinować (pl) impf, knuć (pl) impf, uknuć (pl) pf Portuguese: conspirar (pt) Russian: замышля́ть (ru) impf (zamyšljátʹ), сгова́риваться (ru) impf (sgovárivatʹsja), сговори́ться (ru) pf (sgovorítʹsja) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: please add this translation if you can Ukrainian: змовля́тися impf (zmovljátysja), змо́витися pf (zmóvytysja) Vietnamese: âm mưu (vi), mưu hại (vi) Welsh: cynllwynio (cy)

to try to make things go a certain way

Vietnamese: chung sức, hiệp lực (vi)

Anagrams

• incorpse, scorpine

French

Pronunciation

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

• Homophones: conspirent, conspires

Verb

conspire

1. inflection of conspirer:
   1. first/third-person singular present indicative/subjunctive
   2. second-person singular imperative

Portuguese

Verb

conspire

1. inflection of conspirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Romanian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [konˈspire]

Verb

conspire

1. third-person singular/plural present subjunctive of conspira

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konsˈpiɾe/ [kõnsˈpi.ɾe]
• Rhymes: -iɾe
• Syllabification: cons‧pi‧re

Verb

conspire

1. inflection of conspirar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative