conceit

/kənˈsit/

/kənˈsit/

Other forms: conceits

If you’re always boasting and can’t stop talking about yourself, you have that character flaw known as conceit. Your friends — if you have any — may also complain about your arrogance, vanity, and egotism.

A conceit can also be an artistic device — probably a little forced — like the plot of a movie built on the conceit of everything that happens being foretold in song. You might find an architectural conceit in a Baroque palace, where you think you’re looking down a long hallway lined with columns, but when you get closer you see that it's really a mural painted in perspective so that the columns only seem to disappear in the distance.

Definitions of conceit

1. noun

   the trait of being unduly vain and conceited; false pride
   synonyms: conceitedness, vanity

   antonyms:

   humility

   a lack of arrogance or false pride

   types:

   narcism, narcissism, self-love

   an exceptional interest in and admiration for yourself

   boastfulness, vainglory

   outspoken conceit

   egotism, self-importance, swelled head

   an exaggerated opinion of your own importance

   posturing

   adopting a vain conceited posture

   superiority complex

   an exaggerated estimate of your own value and importance

   type of:

   trait

   a distinguishing feature of your personal nature
2. noun

   feelings of excessive pride
   synonyms: amour propre, self-love, vanity

   type of:

   pride, pridefulness

   a feeling of self-respect and personal worth
3. noun

   a fanciful idea or notion
4. noun

   an artistic device or effect
   “the architect's brilliant conceit was to build the house around the tree”

   type of:

   device

   something in an artistic work designed to achieve a particular effect
5. noun

   an elaborate poetic image or a far-fetched comparison of very dissimilar things
   type of:

   figure, figure of speech, image, trope

   language used in a figurative or nonliteral sense
6. noun

   a witty or ingenious turn of phrase
   “he could always come up with some inspired off-the-wall conceit”

   type of:

   turn of expression, turn of phrase

   a distinctive spoken or written expression