con·spir·a·cy /kən-'spir-ə-sē/ 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
◇ 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
Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary of Law. Merriam-Webster. 1996.