Conspiracy

How to spell conspiracy

10 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce conspiracy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does conspiracy mean?

1. nounA secret plan by two or more people to do something unlawful or harmful.

Conspiracy in a sentence

• The executives were charged with conspiracy to defraud investors.

• Police uncovered a conspiracy to fix prices across the industry.

Where does conspiracy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin verb conspirare, which literally meant 'to breathe together'. It was formed from con- 'together' and spirare 'to breathe', the same root that gives us 'respire', 'inspire', and 'spirit'. The vivid image was of people so closely in agreement that they seemed to breathe in unison, and from there the sense shifted to plotting in secret toward a shared, usually unlawful, aim. English took it through Old French conspiracie in the late 1300s, and the noun has carried the sense of a covert plot ever since. The hidden breathing root is a useful memory hook: the awkward middle is spelled spir, just like 'respiratory', and the ending is the soft -acy rather than -asy.

How the word is built

• con- (together)
• spir (breathe, from Latin spirare)
• -acy (noun-forming suffix)