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According to Oxford Dictionary:

Form a mental representation of; imagine:

without society an individual cannot be conceived as having rights

[no object]:

we could not conceive of such things happening to us

and one of the example sentence given just below this definition is:

At its best, his show celebrates the capacity of our imagination to conceive of, then rationalise, the ridiculous.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/conceive

So What does this sentence mean?

What is the difference between the word imagination and conceive of?( there must a subtle difference)

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  • Simple difference: Noun vs. verb. Does this clarify your question?
    – Stephie
    Aug 21, 2015 at 4:16
  • The first dictionary example seems odd to me without "of". When I read " an individual cannot be conceived [as having rights], I think of those who advance the idea that a fertilized egg becomes a person at the moment of conception, and thus has rights while in the womb.
    – Brian Hitchcock
    Aug 21, 2015 at 10:04
  • @Stephie Actually I got the example sentence as "At its best, his show celebrates FROM the capacity of our imagination to conceive of, then rationalise, the ridiculous." Maybe it is not correct grammatically in this way.So the sentence says like "...our imagination to imagine..."
    – Mrt
    Aug 21, 2015 at 10:57

1 Answer 1

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'Imagination' is a noun. It's the human ability to come up with ideas. 'Conceive of' (or 'imagine', which is usually synonymous) is a verb - it's the thing that the imagination does.

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  • Actually I got the example sentence as "At its best, his show celebrates FROM the capacity of our imagination to conceive of, then rationalise, the ridiculous." Maybe it is not correct grammatically in this way.So the sentence says like "...our imagination to imagine..." .Thank you.
    – Mrt
    Aug 21, 2015 at 10:58

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