conspire

conspire

See also: conspiré

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Old French conspirer, from Latin conspirare, conspīrō, from con- (combining form of cum (“with”)) + spīrō (“breathe”)

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation)
• Rhymes: -aɪə(r)

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.
   • Bible, Genesis xxxvii. 18

     They conspired against [Joseph] to slay him.

2. (intransitive) To agree, to concur to one end.
   • Roscommon

     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 try to bring about.
   • Bishop Hall

   Angry clouds conspire your overthrow.

Synonyms

• (secretly plot): collogue

Related terms

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

Translations

to secretly plot

Albanian: please add this translation if you can Arabic: تَآمَرَ‎ (taʾāmara), اِئْتَمَرَ‎ (ar) (iʾtamara) Armenian: please add this translation if you can Bulgarian: заговорнича (bg) (zagovorniča) Chinese: Mandarin: 勾结 (zh) Dutch: samenzweren (nl) Esperanto: konspiri Finnish: juonitella Galician: urdir Georgian: please add this translation if you can German: sich verschwören Greek: συνωμοτώ (el) (synomotó)

Hungarian: összeesküszik (hu), konspirál (hu) Indonesian: berkomplot (id) Kashubian: kònspirowac Khmer: please add this translation if you can Maori: whakatakoto kara, kakai Mongolian: please add this translation if you can Polish: spiskować (pl) impf, konspirować impf, kombinować impf, knuć (pl) impf, uknuć (pl) pf Portuguese: conspirar (pt) Russian: замышля́ть (ru) impf (zamyšljátʹ), сгова́риваться (ru) impf (sgovárivatʹsja) Thai: please add this translation if you can Turkish: please add this translation if you can Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can Welsh: cynllwynio (cy)

to try to make things go a certain way

Anagrams

• incorpse, scorpine

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French

Pronunciation

• Homophones: conspirent, conspires

Verb

conspire

1. first-person singular present indicative of conspirer
2. third-person singular present indicative of conspirer
3. first-person singular present subjunctive of conspirer
4. third-person singular present subjunctive of conspirer
5. second-person singular imperative of conspirer

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Portuguese

Verb

conspire

1. first-person singular (eu) present subjunctive of conspirar
2. third-person singular (ele and ela, also used with você and others) present subjunctive of conspirar
3. third-person singular (você) affirmative imperative of conspirar
4. third-person singular (você) negative imperative of conspirar

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Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /konsˈpiɾe/, [kõnsˈpiɾe]

Verb

conspire

1. Formal second-person singular (usted) imperative form of conspirar.
2. First-person singular (yo) present subjunctive form of conspirar.
3. Formal second-person singular (usted) present subjunctive form of conspirar.
4. Third-person singular (él, ella, also used with usted^?) present subjunctive form of conspirar.