I have been trying to get my head around the difference between collusion and conspiracy, so I consulted two dictionaries. The unabridged edition of an older (circa 1970s) Random House Dictionary of the English Language defines those two words this way: collusion — a secret agreement for fraudulent or treacherous purposes, conspiracy; collude — act together in a secret agreement; and conspiracy — fraud.

The other dictionary I looked at was the Little Oxford Dictionary. Because it’s little, the definitions are shorter but you get the meanings. Collude means conspire, and conspire means to combine secretly for unlawful or harmful purpose.

In each of these dictionaries there are also secondary definitions but they expand on the primary words. These two words obviously mean illegal activity, no matter how you cut it, unless these dictionaries are so out of date the meanings are no longer valid.

Russell Thompson

Astoria