conducts

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of conduct.

   Copper conducts electricity more efficiently than steel does.

   The committee conducts its meetings behind closed doors.

   Note

   The form a singular present-tense subject takes, and it keeps every construction of the base verb. It is transitive with an object (conducts an orchestra, conducts heat), reflexive when it means behaving, and intransitive when a material simply carries current. The reflexive pronoun does real work here. Without it, the verb reads as leading or transmitting rather than behaving.

   She conducts herself calmly under pressure.

   Once the wire corrodes, it conducts poorly.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of conduct. Rare, since conduct is usually uncountable.

   Note

   A plural that turns up mostly in formal or specialized writing. Every noun meaning of conduct can be treated as a mass or as countable instances, and the plural does the counting: the conducts of two officers compared case by case, or separate procedures for separate groups. It is spelled the same as the present-tense verb, and position tells them apart. After the, their or separate it is the noun; after a singular subject it is the verb.

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