Adjacent Words

Conspiracy definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

CONSPIRACY, n. [L. See Conspire.]
1. A combination of men for an evil purpose; an agreement between two or more persons, to commit some crime in concert; particularly, a combination to commit treason, or excite sedition or insurrection against the government of a state; a plot; as a conspiracy against the life of a king; a conspiracy against the government.
More than forty had made this conspiracy. Acts 23.
2. In law, an agreement between two or more persons, falsely and maliciously to indict, or procure to be indicted, an innocent person of felony.
3. A concurrence; a general tendency of two or more causes to one event.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a secret agreement between two or more people to perform an unlawful act [syn: conspiracy, confederacy]
2: a plot to carry out some harmful or illegal act (especially a political plot) [syn: conspiracy, cabal]
3: a group of conspirators banded together to achieve some harmful or illegal purpose [syn: conspiracy, confederacy]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -cies) Etymology: Middle English conspiracie, from Latin conspirare Date: 14th century 1. the act of conspiring together 2. a. an agreement among conspirators b. a group of conspirators Synonyms: see plot

Britannica Concise

Agreement between two or more persons to commit an unlawful act or to accomplish a lawful end by unlawful means. Some U.S. states require an overt act in addition to the agreement to constitute conspiracy. Individual conspirators need not even know of the existence or the identity of all other conspirators. In a chain conspiracy the parties act separately and successively (as in distributing narcotics). A civil conspiracy is not prosecuted as a crime but forms the grounds for a lawsuit. In antitrust law, conspiracies in restraint of trade (e.g., price fixing) are rigorously prosecuted. In the U.S. it is common to punish a conspiracy to commit an offense more harshly than the offense itself, but there has been a growing trend to follow the European example and make the punishment for conspiracy the same as or less than that for the offense itself.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. (pl. -ies) 1 a secret plan to commit a crime or do harm, often for political ends; a plot. 2 the act of conspiring. Phrases and idioms: conspiracy of silence an agreement to say nothing. Etymology: ME f. AF conspiracie, alt. form of OF conspiration f. L conspiratio -onis (as conspire)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Conspiracy Con*spir"a*cy, n.; pl. Conspiracies. [See Conspiration.] 1. A combination of men for an evil purpose; an agreement, between two or more persons, to commit a crime in concert, as treason; a plot. When shapen was all his conspiracy From point to point. --Chaucer. They made a conspiracy against [Amaziah]. --2 Kings xiv. 19. I had forgot that foul conspiracy Of the beast Caliban and his confederates. --Shak. 2. A concurence or general tendency, as of circumstances, to one event, as if by agreement. A conspiracy in all heavenly and earthly things. --Sir P. Sidney. 3. (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. Syn: Combination; plot; cabal.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(conspiracies) 1. Conspiracy is the secret planning by a group of people to do something illegal. Seven men, all from Bristol, admitted conspiracy to commit arson... He believes there probably was a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy in 1963. N-VAR: oft N to-inf 2. A conspiracy is an agreement between a group of people which other people think is wrong or is likely to be harmful. There was no evidence to link the brigade to any conspiracy against Mr Bush. N-COUNT: oft N to-inf

International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

kon-spir'-a-si.

See CONFEDERACY.

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. Plot, combination, cabal, complot, intrigue, machination.

Moby Thesaurus

Anschluss, accompaniment, accordance, addition, affiliation, agglomeration, aggregation, agreement, alliance, amalgamation, art, artful dodge, artifice, assimilation, association, blend, blending, blind, cabal, cahoots, cartel, centralization, chicane, chicanery, co-working, coaction, coalescence, coalition, coincidence, collaboration, collectivity, collusion, combination, combine, combined effort, combo, complicity, complot, composition, concert, concerted action, concomitance, concordance, concourse, concurrence, confederacy, confederation, confluence, congeries, conglomeration, conjugation, conjunction, conn, connivance, connivery, consilience, consolidation, contrivance, contriving, cooperation, correspondence, counterplot, coup, covin, craft, cute trick, deceit, deep-laid plot, design, device, dirty work, disloyalty, dodge, dodgery, ecumenism, embodiment, encompassment, engineering, enosis, expedient, faithlessness, fakement, falsity, federalization, federation, feint, fetch, finagling, finesse, foul play, frame-up, fusion, gambit, game, gimmick, grift, hookup, inclusion, incorporation, integration, intrigue, jugglery, junction, junta, knavery, league, little game, machination, maneuver, maneuvering, manipulation, marriage, meld, melding, merger, move, package, package deal, parasitism, perfidiousness, perfidy, pettifoggery, pettifogging, plot, plotting, ploy, practice, racket, red herring, rigging, ruse, saprophytism, scheme, schemery, scheming, sedition, sharp practice, shift, simultaneity, skulduggery, sleight, solidification, stratagem, strategy, subterfuge, supercherie, symbiosis, synchronism, syncretism, syndication, syneresis, synergy, synthesis, tactic, tie-up, treacherousness, treachery, treason, trick, trickery, underhand dealing, underplot, unification, union, united action, web of intrigue, wedding, wile, wily device, wire-pulling