Other forms: concepts
A concept is an abstract idea held in the mind. A difficult concept, the concept of fairness, grasp the concept.
It is more formal than idea and more general than theory: a concept is a category of thought rather than a proposal. In design and business, a concept is an early plan or a governing idea: a concept car, the concept behind the restaurant. Note conceptual, meaning to do with concepts; conceptual art, where the idea matters more than the object; and conceive, which is the verb behind it.
1nounconceptAn abstract idea held in the mind.
“The concept is easy and the arithmetic is not.”
2nounearlyAn early plan or governing idea for something.
“The concept was better than anything they actually built.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
concept is an idea.
Also accepted in games: notion
Latin conceptus means something taken in or grasped, from concipere — the same verb that gives conceive, in both the mental and the biological sense. A concept is literally something the mind has taken hold of.
Latin
conceptus
Middle French
concept
English, today
concept
Built from
Borrowed from Middle French concept, from Latin conceptus. Borrowed from Middle French concept, from Latin conceptus (“a thought, purpose, also a conceiving, etc.”), from concipiō (“to take in, conceive”). a doublet of conceit and concetto. See conceive.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA