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conceit meaning and examples

2025-09-07

Meaning

Conceit is a noun with two main meanings:

  1. Excessive pride in oneself — an attitude of vanity or arrogance.
  2. A fanciful or extended metaphor used in literature or poetry.

Grammar and Usage

  • Part of speech: noun
  • Usually uncountable when referring to pride (e.g., full of conceit).
  • Can be countable when referring to a literary device (e.g., a clever conceit in the poem).

Sentence structures:

  • "be full of conceit"
  • "display/express conceit"
  • "conceit of comparing A to B" (literary use)

Common Phrases

  • Full of conceit
  • Intellectual conceit
  • A clever conceit (literary)
  • A poetic conceit

Collocations

  • Adjective + conceit: sheer conceit, intellectual conceit, poetic conceit
  • Verb + conceit: display conceit, reveal conceit, disguise conceit
  • Preposition + conceit: out of conceit, with conceit

Examples

  1. His constant bragging showed how full of conceit he was.
  2. She entered the room with such conceit that no one wanted to talk to her.
  3. The poet’s clever conceit compared life to a fragile glass vase.
  4. Intellectual conceit can prevent people from admitting their mistakes.
  5. He disguised his conceit under false modesty.
  6. The novel is structured around the conceit of a journey through time.
  7. Her success gave her a sense of conceit that annoyed her colleagues.
  • For pride: arrogance, vanity, egotism, hubris
  • For literary sense: metaphor, simile, figure of speech

Antonym

  • For pride: humility, modesty
  • For literary sense: plain statement, literal expression