Definition of "conspectus" [con•spec•tus]

• A general survey of a subject. (noun)
• A synopsis. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "There is no place in this conspectus for the person as such, for those who live as individuals humble to God, haughty to man 'scorning the bounds of a predetermined estate, vindicating the glory of person as person."
• "Michael C. Witte Jim Holt, who takes in so much about the history and philosophy of joke-telling in his concise and amiable conspectus of the subject, "Stop Me If You've Heard This," does not mention the effect of the Internet on joke-telling, but that's about his only omission."
• "To make matters worse, he's come up with a blindingly obvious and brilliant wheeze for both generating lots of interesting copy and also providing what amounts to a grand conspectus of the entire open source business scene: an emailed survey of top CEOs there."