concept
English
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French concept, from Latin conceptus (“a thought, purpose, also a conceiving, etc.”), from concipiō (“to take in, conceive”). Doublet of conceit. See conceive.
Pronunciation
- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈkɒn.sɛpt/
Audio (Berkshire) (file) - (US) IPA(key): /ˈkɑn.sɛpt/
Noun
concept (plural concepts)
- An abstract and general idea; an abstraction.
- Understanding retained in the mind, from experience, reasoning and 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).
- 1855, Thomas Reid, Sir W. Hamilton, James Walker, “Essay IV. Of Conception”, in Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man:
- The words conception, concept, notion, should be limited to the thought of what can not be represented in the imagination; as, the thought suggested by a general term.
- 2011 July 20, Edwin Mares, “Propositional Functions”, in The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, retrieved 2012-07-15:
- Frege's concepts are very nearly propositional functions in the modern sense. Frege explicitly recognizes them as functions. Like Peirce's rhema, a concept is unsaturated. They are in some sense incomplete. Although Frege never gets beyond the metaphorical in his description of the incompleteness of concepts and other functions, one thing is clear: the distinction between objects and functions is the main division in his metaphysics. There is something special about functions that makes them very different from objects.
- 2012 March-April, Jan Sapp, “Race Finished”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 164:
- Few concepts are as emotionally charged as that of race. The word conjures up a mixture of associations—culture, ethnicity, genetics, subjugation, exclusion and persecution. But is the tragic history of efforts to define groups of people by race really a matter of the misuse of science, the abuse of a valid biological concept?
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- (generic programming) A description of supported operations on a type, including their syntax and semantics.
Synonyms
- The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates
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- conception
- notion
- abstraction
Hyponyms
- The terms below need to be checked and allocated to the definitions (senses) of the headword above. Each term should appear in the sense for which it is appropriate. For synonyms and antonyms you may use the templates
{{syn|en|...}}or{{ant|en|...}}.
- conceptualization, conceptualisation, conceptuality
- notion
- scheme
- rule, regulation
- property, attribute, dimension
- abstraction, abstract
- quantity
- part, section, division
- whole
- law, natural law, law of nature
- hypothesis
- possibility
- theory
- fact
- rule
Derived terms
- concept album
- concept art
- concept car
- concept drift
- concept map
- concept video
- gap concept
- high concept
- high-concept
- macroconcept
- microconcept
- operating concept
- primitive concept
- proof of concept
- proof-of-concept
- self-concept
Related terms
Terms etymologically related to concept
- conceive
- conceptional
- conceptive
- conceptual
- misconceive
- misconception
Translations
something understood and retained in the mind
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See also
- essential
- fundamental
- idea
- meaning
- pattern
- thought
Verb
concept (third-person singular simple present concepts, present participle concepting, simple past and past participle concepted)
- to conceive; to dream up
Further reading
- concept in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
- concept in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911
concept on Wikipedia.Wikipedia 
Concept in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
Dutch
Etymology
Borrowed from Middle French concept, from Latin conceptus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔnˈsɛpt/
Audio (file) - Hyphenation: con‧cept
Noun
concept n (plural concepten, diminutive conceptje n)
- concept
- draft, sketch
Derived terms
- conceptversie
Descendants
- Afrikaans: konsep
- → Indonesian: konsep
- → Papiamentu: kònsèpt
French
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin conceptus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kɔ̃.sɛpt/
Audio (file) - Rhymes: -ɛpt
- Homophone: concepts
Noun
concept m (plural concepts)
- concept
- Synonyms: connaissance, idée, notion
Related terms
- concepteur
- conception
- conceptualiser
- conceptualisation
- conceptuel
- conceptuellement
- concevoir
Further reading
- “concept”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French concept, Latin conceptus.
Noun
concept n (plural concepte)
- concept
Declension
Declension of concept
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
| nominative/accusative | (un) concept | conceptul | (niște) concepte | conceptele |
| genitive/dative | (unui) concept | conceptului | (unor) concepte | conceptelor |
| vocative | conceptule | conceptelor | ||
Related terms
- concepe
- concepere
- conceptibil
- conceptibilitate
- conceptism
- conceptual
- conceptualism
- conceptualist
- conceptualiza
- conceptualizat
- conceptualizare
- concepție
- concepțional