conclusion

UK/kənˈkluːʒən/US/kənˈkluːʒən/

nounB13 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #2,594 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: conclusions

A conclusion is what you decide at the end, once everything is in front of you. The results come back from the lab, you read them twice, and the conclusion is that the water is safe to drink.

Conclusion is also the end itself — the conclusion of a match, of a war, of a long chapter — and in an essay it is the final paragraph, the one that says what the whole thing was for. Mind the collocations, because they are fixed: you come to a conclusion, you reach one, or you draw one. You do not make a conclusion. Jump to conclusions and you have decided before the evidence turned up; a foregone conclusion was settled before anybody started. The verb is conclude, and a speaker who says in conclusion is telling you there is about a minute left.

Definitions of conclusion

1nounconclusionThe decision or opinion you arrive at after weighing the facts.B1~33%
“The report's conclusion was that the bridge was safe.”
synonyms: finding, verdict
2nounendingThe end of something, or the last part of it.B1~33%
“The talks reached their conclusion after nine days.”
synonyms: ending, close
3nounlogicIn an argument, the statement that the reasons are there to support.B1~34%
“Two good reasons, and the conclusion still does not follow from them.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 167 sentences found in the wild and placed 163 of them on a sense (4 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.

Phrases it lives in

jump to conclusions — decide what happened before you have the facts
a foregone conclusion — an outcome that was certain before it began
in conclusion — the phrase that signals the last part of a talk

Also practised as

nounWhat an argument says follows from its reasons.

Where it comes from

Conclusion comes from Latin conclūdō, built out of con- and claudō, and under all of it lies an ancient root, *(s)kleh₂w- — key, hook, nail. The pieces you fasten a door with. A conclusion is the thing that shuts the argument and then holds it shut.

Proto-Indo-European
*(s)kleh₂w- — key, hook, nail
Latin
conclūsiō
Old French
conclusion
English, today
conclusion

Built from

conclūdō · Latin — to conclude

From Middle English -, borrowed from Old French conclusion, from Latin conclūsiō, from the past participle stem of conclūdō (“to conclude”), from con- + claudō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European (s)kleh₂w- (“key, hook, nail”). by surface analysis, conclude + -sion.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Science & Space, A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 7 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

conclusion in the wild

One approach defines deduction in terms of the intentions of the author: they have to intend for the premises to offer deductive support to the conclusion.
Deductive reasoning
Another factor is the content of the arguments: people are more likely to believe that an argument is valid if the claim made in its conclusion is plausible.
Deductive reasoning
An answer to a question of law as applied to the specific facts of a case is often referred to as a conclusion of law.
Question of law
In music, the conclusion is the ending of a composition and may take the form of a coda or outro.
Conclusion (music)
Each argument is made up of a set of premises together with a conclusion.
Premise

1 / 4

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

From Project Gutenberg, public domain. These sentences are from real books, shown to illustrate the word at work.

Related words

the conclūdō family

conclusion conclude

conclusion — used about once every 365 pages · #2,594 · point at the bar for the others

Definitions of conclusion

1nounconclusionThe decision or opinion you arrive at after weighing the facts.B1~33%

“The report's conclusion was that the bridge was safe.”

synonyms: finding, verdict

2nounendingThe end of something, or the last part of it.B1~33%

“The talks reached their conclusion after nine days.”

synonyms: ending, close

3nounlogicIn an argument, the statement that the reasons are there to support.B1~34%

“Two good reasons, and the conclusion still does not follow from them.”

Shares are an estimate: a language model read 167 sentences found in the wild and placed 163 of them on a sense (4 were unclear) — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.