conspiracy

Etymology

From Middle English conspiracie, from Anglo-Norman conspiracie, from Latin cōnspīrātiō. Doublet of conspiration.

noun

1. The act of two or more persons, called conspirators, working secretly to obtain some goal, usually understood with negative connotations.
   Modern political religions may reject Christianity, but they cannot do without demonology. The Jacobins, the Bolsheviks and the Nazis all believed in vast conspiracies against them, as do radical Islamists today. It is never the flaws of human nature that stand in the way of Utopia. It is the workings of evil forces. 2007, John Gray, Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia
2. (law) An agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future.
3. A group of ravens.
4. A group of lemurs.
   Indeed, as I sat, forlorn, never having found my particular conspiracy of lemurs (how about that for a name for a group of lemurs? The name lemur itself comes from the Latin for “spirits of the dead”) … February 8, 2018, Jeffrey T. Laitman, “The Search for the Intersection of Form and Function: Looking for Clues into What Has Determined How, Why, and When Animals Came to Move the Way They Do”, in The Anatomical Record, volume 301, number 3, →DOI
   The Oregon Zoo welcomed two red-ruffed lemurs this week, bringing the total number in the conspiracy — the name for a group of lemurs — to seven. November 9, 2018, “Red alert: New lemurs join zoo conspiracy”, in Oregon Zoo, retrieved 2019-11-05
5. (linguistics) A situation in which different phonological or grammatical rules lead to similar or related outcomes.
6. (by ellipsis) A conspiracy theory; a hypothesis alleging conspiracy.
   Rather than propagating conspiracies about the evils of wealthy Jewry, they beat up poor Roma in back alleys. 2008, Edward Snajdr, Nature Protests: The End of Ecology in Slovakia, University of Washington Press, page 176
   The internet helps spread conspiracies, but it can also be used to verify claims made by politicians and the media. 2018, Rita Santos, The Deep State, Greenhaven Publishing, page 99

verb

1. (rare, proscribed) To conspire.
   He knew I would come for him when I discovered what he did, so he, he conspiracied to put me in prison. 2007, Brian Francis Slattery, Spaceman Blues: A Love Song, page 45
   “What are you two conspiracying about up here?” asked Kira, walking up next to me. 2019, Vincent Trigili, Rise of the Goblin King
   Promoters of the CrowdStrike theory often claim that CrowdStrike co-founder Dmitri Alperovitch is Ukrainian, which they see as “proof” of his willingness to conspiracy with the Ukrainian government and Democrats against Putin and Trump in 2016. November 21, 2019, Alex Henderson, “The looney CrowdStrike conspiracy claims debunked by Fiona Hill during her bombshell impeachment testimony”, in AlterNet