Conduit

How to spell conduit

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce conduit

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conduit mean?

1. nounA pipe, tube, or channel for carrying water, cables, or other things from one place to another.
2. nounA person, organisation, or thing that serves as a channel for passing on information, money, or influence.

Conduit in a sentence

• The electrician threaded the wiring through a metal conduit in the wall.

• The charity became the main conduit for foreign aid to the region.

• Rainwater drained from the roof through a buried conduit into the tank.

• Her blog acted as a conduit between the company and its customers.

Where does conduit come from?

Language of origin: French

Conduit travelled into English from Old French in the 1300s, where conduit meant a pipe or channel for carrying water, and sometimes an escort or guide. The French form descended from the Medieval Latin conductus, the past participle of conducere, which combined con- 'together' with ducere 'to lead', so the literal sense was 'something led or brought together'. That same ducere root feeds a whole family of English words such as 'duct', 'aqueduct', 'conduct' and 'produce', all of which carry the idea of leading or channelling. Over time the watery, plumbing sense broadened into the figurative meaning of any person or thing that serves as a channel for information or influence. The reason the spelling trips people up is precisely that French inheritance: the ending is written -duit rather than the more familiar -duct, even though the two share the same Latin parent.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• duit (from Latin ducere: to lead)