DictionaryAI

conclude

verb
kuhn-KLOOD/kənˈkluːd/

Formsconcludes, concluding, concluded

9 meanings of conclude

Practice

  1. 1
    verbtransitive
    To bring something to an end; to close or finish it.

    The mayor concluded her speech with a call for unity.

    Let me conclude the meeting with a few thank-yous.

    Similarend, close, finish, terminate

    Oppositebegin, start (entry), open, commence

  2. 2
    verbintransitive
    To come to an end; to finish.

    The concert concluded just after midnight.

    Negotiations will conclude tomorrow afternoon.

    Similarend, finish, close, terminate, cease

    Oppositebegin, start (entry), commence, open

    Note

    Here the thing itself does the ending: a story, a speech or a meeting concludes. It usually takes with to introduce the final part (the story concluded with a moral), and in Henry Fielding's The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling (1749) it takes a gerund: concluded with wishing something could be done. When a person ends something, the verb becomes transitive, as in the "bring to an end" meaning.

  3. 3
    verbtransitive
    To reach a final decision or settled opinion about a matter.

    Investigators concluded that the fire was an accident.

    We can only conclude one thing from all this evidence.

    Similardetermine, decide, deduce, infer, judge

    Note

    The decision sense pairs naturally with a that-clause, with its grounds in a from-phrase: from the evidence, I conclude that this man was murdered. John Tillotson (before 1694) uses a plain object instead. He writes that no one can conclude God's love or hatred by anything that befalls a person, and there by introduces the evidence.

  4. 4
    verbtransitive
    To arrive at a fact or judgment by reasoning from available evidence or premises.

    The researchers concluded that diet alone could not explain the results.

    From these premises we conclude that the argument holds.

    Similardeduce, infer, reason, determine, gather

    Note

    Logic gives the word its strictest use: drawing a proposition from premises. In a valid inference, the truth of the premises guarantees the truth of what is concluded. Deduce and infer are its near neighbors. The everyday decision sense allows for weighing and judgment, while the logician's sense asks only whether the step from premises to conclusion holds.

  5. 5
    verbtransitive
    To bring something about formally, especially an agreement, treaty, or deal.

    The two nations concluded a peace treaty after months of talks.

    They hope to conclude the deal by Friday.

    Similarfinalize, settle, seal, clinch, complete

    Note

    Here concluding means making, not ending. To conclude a bargain or a peace is to bring the agreement into being, and Shakespeare's The First Part of Henry the Sixt (1591) already speaks of concluding a peace. So read "they concluded a deal" as "they struck one." Ending an existing arrangement belongs to the "finish" meaning instead.

  6. 6
    verbtransitive
    To bar, restrain, or estop someone from acting or asserting a claim.

    The defendant was concluded by his earlier admission in court.

    Prior agreements can conclude a party from later disputing the terms.

    Similarbar, estop, preclude, restrain

    Note

    The sense is built for the passive. A defendant who is concluded by his own plea is bound by it and barred from saying otherwise. Whatever follows by is the barrier: a plea, a prior judgment, or, in Matthew Hale (before 1677), revelation itself. Active use is possible too: a judgment concludes the introduction of further evidence. It works much as estop does.

Less common meanings

  1. 7
    verbobsolete
    To pass final judgment on a matter; to decide or determine it definitively.
    But no frail man, however great or high, / Can be concluded blest before he die.
    1717, Joseph Addison, Metamorphoses
    Note

    In this obsolete use, the verdict falls on a person or thing as its object. Joseph Addison's Metamorphoses (1717) says no frail man can be concluded blest before he die, meaning judged or pronounced blessed. A passive followed by an adjective is the giveaway. In modern writing, judge, deem or pronounce does this job, and conclude in this frame would read as an error.

  2. 8
    verbobsolete
    To shut something up; to enclose or confine it within a space.
    The very person of Christ [was] concluded within the grave.
    1594, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie
    Note

    The Latin "shut up" behind the "come to an end" sense survives most literally here: something concluded is closed in. Richard Hooker (1594–1597) writes that the very person of Christ was concluded within the grave. The use is obsolete, so a modern reader should take it as "enclosed" or "shut in." Written today, it would mislead.

  3. 9
    verbobsolete
    To include or comprehend several things together; to embrace within a single whole.
    For God hath concluded all in unbelief.
    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
    The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.
    1611, The Holy Bible, King James Version
    Note

    Readers of the King James Bible of 1611 meet this obsolete sense in "God hath concluded all in unbelief" and "the Scripture hath concluded all under sin." Both mean that everyone is gathered together under one condition, not that anything ends. Unlike the single enclosure, the point is many things held together, as when Ben Jonson's The Poetaster (1601) places the chief end of life within the court.

Practice

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Origin

From Middle English concluden, borrowed from Latin conclūdere meaning "to shut up, close, or end."