unconsciously

[ uhn-kon-shuhs-lee ]

adverb

1. unintentionally and without realizing what one is doing:

   Unconsciously, almost in spite of herself, she sighed.

2. at a level below that of conscious thought:

   Children are unconsciously influenced by the appearance and personalities of their parents to choose partners who resemble them.

3. without any awareness, sensation, or cognition at all:

   As her mind drifted into a cloud of darkness and she lost all feeling, her body unconsciously fought the force of gravity pushing against it.

Other Words From

• qua·si-un·con·scious·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of unconsciously¹

unconscious ( def ) + -ly

Example Sentences

"And I think everyone around me has, consciously or unconsciously, relaxed and allowed me to do it."

From BBC

It is common for partisan passions and selective fact-telling to shape reporting, sometimes consciously, sometimes unconsciously.

From Salon

"Unlike the strong, determined character in Stephen King’s novel, Wendy in the film version fears Jack’s violent temper, which threatens to explode at any moment. Duvall’s Wendy lives in constant dread, perhaps unconsciously so, of Jack’s emotional and physical outbursts — and so she spends most of the film on pins and needles."

From Salon

Mr Hanson says that in etiquette terms, there's nothing wrong with wanting to get up to stretch your legs, and perhaps people just want to get off because they are unconsciously a bit scared of being on a plane.

From BBC

After reporters informed him that the Haitians in Springfield were here legally, he responded by telling them, “I’m still gonna call them an illegal alien,” unconsciously echoing Karl Lueger, the notorious antisemitic Mayor of Vienna around the turn of the twentieth century, who famously declared, “I decide who’s a Jew.”

From Salon

Related Words

• unintentionally
• unknowingly
• unwittingly