Conspiracy
conspiracy n
pl: -cies [Latin
conspiratio, from
conspirare to conspire see
conspire ]
1 : an agreement between two or more people to commit an act prohibited by law or to commit a lawful act by means prohibited by law
;also : the crime or tort of participating in a conspiracy compare
substantive crime NOTE: Some states require an overt act in addition to the agreement to constitute conspiracy. chain conspiracy : a conspiracy in which the conspirators act separately and successively (as in distributing narcotics)
civil conspiracy : a conspiracy that is not prosecuted as a crime but that forms the grounds for a lawsuit
criminal conspiracy : a conspiracy prosecuted as a crime
2 : a group of conspirators
