conceive
/kənˈsiːv/verb
conceive is spelled C-O-N-C-E-I-V-E. The wrong spelling people search most is concieve: about 200 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Conceive is a verb meaning “To have a child; to become pregnant (with)”.
How many letters and syllables are in conceive?
| Letters | 8: C-O-N-C-E-I-V-E |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 2 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2.5 times per million words; the 17,122nd most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, concieve, about 200 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell conceive?
Conceive is spelled C-O-N-C-E-I-V-E. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for conceive in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is conceive?
Conceive appears 2.5 times per million words in written English, the 17,122nd most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce conceive?
- /kənˈsiːv/
Conceive has 2 syllables (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-conceive.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of conceive
- conceives present, singular, he/she/it
- conceiving participle, present
- conceived participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does conceive mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
verb
- 1
To have a child; to become pregnant (with).
Assisted procreation can help those trying to conceive.
- 2
To develop; to form in the mind; to imagine.
- 3
To imagine (as); to have a conception of; to form a representation of.
Can you conceive of him as a leader?
- 4
To understand (someone).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Conceive in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | concevoir , tomber enceinte |
| German | konzipieren, erdenken, ersinnen , empfangen, verstehen |
| Portuguese | conceber , compreender |
| Spanish | concebir |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does conceive come from?
From Middle English conceyven, from Old French concevoir, conceveir, from Latin concipiō, concipere (“to devise, to conceive”).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).