Conquest

How to spell conquest

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce conquest

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conquest mean?

1. nounThe act of taking control of a country, territory, or people by force, or the thing so taken.
2. nounSomething achieved or won, especially after considerable effort.

Conquest in a sentence

• The museum exhibit traced the Norman conquest of England in 1066.

• Reaching the summit was the climber's proudest conquest.

• The empire expanded through decades of relentless conquest.

• The company treated the new overseas market as its next conquest.

Where does conquest come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin conquaerere, formed from the intensive prefix con- and the verb quaerere, which meant 'to seek' or 'to acquire'. In late Latin the sense narrowed from simply 'seeking out' to actively winning something by force. It passed into Old French as conquest or conqueste, the noun describing land or property gained in war, and English adopted it in the 1300s. The same quaerere root sits behind a surprising family of English words, including 'quest', 'inquire', 'require', and 'acquire', all of which keep the idea of seeking. Knowing that 'quest' lives inside the word helps with the spelling, since the silent run of letters 'qu' followed by 'est' is exactly the same quest you already know.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive, together)
• quest (from Latin quaerere: to seek, to acquire)