Other forms: conducted, conducting, conducts
To conduct something is to carry it out, formally, with you in charge of it. The council conducted a review of the parking rules; the police conducted a search of the flat; a researcher conducts interviews and writes up what she hears.
The famous use is musical: to conduct an orchestra is to stand in front of it and shape what it plays with your hands and a stick. Physics borrows the same verb for materials — copper conducts electricity, water conducts heat — and rubber does not, which is why tool handles are wrapped in it. There is a noun spelled the same but stressed on the first syllable: CONduct means behaviour, as in a code of conduct or a pupil's conduct in class, while you conDUCT a survey. Conduct yourself means behave: he conducted himself well under questioning. And a conductor is three different people and one thing: the figure on the podium, the man checking tickets on a train, and the wire.
1verbcarry-outTo organise and carry out an activity, especially a formal or official one.~65%
“The university conducted a study of sleep among first-year students.”
2verbconductTo direct an orchestra or choir in performance.~2%
“She conducted the whole symphony from memory.”
3verbheatTo let heat, electricity or sound pass through.~2%
“Metal conducts heat much faster than wood does.”
4verbparticularTo behave in a particular way.~2%
“He conducted himself with more dignity than anyone expected.”
5nounmeasuredThe way a person behaves, measured against what is expected.~29%
“The club expelled him for conduct nobody was willing to describe.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 13 sentences found in the wild and placed 13 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Latin condūcō meant to bring together, and its participle conductus meant an escort — the party gathered to see somebody safely along a road. English took the word twice: once as conduct, once as conduit, the pipe that brings water along. It pushed out the older English word for behaviour, þēaw. Leading a road party, leading an orchestra, leading electricity down a wire — the escort is still doing the same job.
Proto-Indo-European
*dewk-
Latin
conductus — defense, escort
English, today
conduct
Built from
From Latin conductus (“defense, escort”), from Latin conductus, perfect passive participle of condūcō (“bring together”); see also conduce. Displaced native Old English þēaw. a doublet of conduit.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA