# conspiracy

Pronunciation: say "kuhn-SPEER-uh-see" /kənˈspɪɹəsi/

## Noun

1. An agreement among several parties to do something harmful, immoral, or subversive; an instance of collusion.
   - Simple: A secret plan by several people to do something harmful or wrong.
   - _Investigators exposed a conspiracy among executives to defraud shareholders._
   - _What began as idle grumbling hardened into a genuine conspiracy against the manager._
2. In law, an agreement by two or more people to commit an illegal act in the future.
   - Simple: A plan made by two or more people to break the law later on.
   - _Prosecutors must prove an agreement existed to secure a conspiracy conviction._
   - _She faced a conspiracy charge for arranging the theft months in advance._
3. A secret agreement among people to do something.
   - Simple: A secret agreement between people to do something together.
   - _The neighbors entered into a secret conspiracy to surprise the retiring teacher._
   - _A friendly conspiracy among coworkers kept the engagement under wraps for weeks._
4. An agreement to work together to bring something about; the act of conspiring.
   - Simple: An agreement to work together to make something happen.
   - _The festival came together through a cheerful conspiracy of volunteers and donors._
   - _Their conspiracy to revive the old theater eventually transformed the whole neighborhood._
5. A hypothesis that explains some event as the work of a secret, coordinated plot, used as a shortening of conspiracy theory. *(nonstandard)*
   - Simple: A belief that a secret group is behind some event, often without proof.
   - _The forum is full of conspiracies claiming the agency faked the data._
   - _She debunked yet another conspiracy about vaccines in her weekly column._
6. A case in which several distinct phonological or grammatical rules independently produce similar or related results.
   - Simple: In language study, a case where separate rules lead to the same kind of result.
   - _Phonologists identified a conspiracy among the rules that all preserve syllable weight._
   - _The analysis revealed a conspiracy whereby several processes yield identical surface forms._

## Verb

7. To act in concert secretly; to conspire. *(nonstandard)*
   - Simple: To secretly work together to plan something.

## Noun

8. A flock or group of ravens. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A group of ravens gathered together.
   - _A conspiracy of ravens had claimed the church tower for years._
   - _Birdwatchers recorded a conspiracy of ravens feeding along the ridge._
9. A troop or group of lemurs. *(rare)*
   - Simple: A group of lemurs living or moving together.
   - _A conspiracy of lemurs occupied the reserve's eastern canopy._
   - _Researchers tracked a conspiracy of lemurs through the rainforest._

## Origin

From Middle English conspiracie, from Anglo-Norman conspiracie, which came from Latin cōnspīrātiō, formed from 'conspire' plus the suffix '-acy'.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/conspiracy (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).