Conceptual

How to spell conceptual

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce conceptual

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conceptual mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to ideas or abstract concepts rather than to concrete details or practical application.

Conceptual in a sentence

• The design team is still at the conceptual stage and has no working prototype yet.

• Her thesis raised a conceptual problem that the data alone could not resolve.

Where does conceptual come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb concipere, meaning 'to take in' or 'to grasp', formed from con- 'together' and capere 'to take'. The past participle conceptus gave rise to the medieval Latin noun conceptus, an idea formed in the mind, the thing 'grasped' by thought. From that noun came the late Latin conceptualis, and English adopted 'conceptual' in the seventeenth century to describe anything relating to concepts or mental ideas rather than physical objects. The same capere root sits inside a large family of English words, including 'capture', 'receive', 'capable' and the closely related 'conceive'. Knowing that the middle is 'cept', from the act of grasping, helps explain the spelling, while the ending '-ual' (rather than just '-al') is the part writers most often drop.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• cept (from Latin capere, to take or grasp)
• -ual (adjective-forming suffix)