conceit

IPA: kʌnsˈit

(obsolete) Something conceived in the mind; an idea, a thought.
The faculty of conceiving ideas; mental faculty; apprehension.
Quickness of apprehension; active imagination; lively fancy.
(obsolete) Opinion, (neutral) judgment.
(now rare, dialectal) Esteem, favourable opinion.
(countable) A novel or fanciful idea; a whim.
(countable, rhetoric, literature) An ingenious expression or metaphorical idea, especially in extended form or used as a literary or rhetorical device.
(uncountable) Overly high self-esteem; vain pride; hubris.
Design; pattern.

Examples of "conceit" in Sentences

The modern conceit is that ‘myself’ can be used as subject, direct and indirect object.
The connecting conceit is that Guard Mice at a tavern are telling tales to outdo one another.
His persons, however distressed, _have a conceit left them in their misery, a miserable conceit_.
The conceit is an implicit narrative of subtext: the quirk “would have happened” or “would happen” in the case of these developments taking place.
This time the conceit is that when rival teams of astronauts head into space to prevent the impending cataclysm they discover alien forces on the satellite.
The series may not solve the problems raised by the buzzy documentary "Waiting for 'Superman,'" but its reality-show conceit is kinder and gentler than most.
This would be true by definition; just as the investigation and explication of the conceit is what defines the process as fabulation, the source and nature of the main conceit (s) is what defines the process as scientific.
If it's all strange fiction, if a conceit is a conceit (and can be explained, excused or exploited) regardless of whether it's counterfactual, hypothetical or metaphysical, we have problems, I think, in sticking to Suvin's term "novum".