conscious
Americanadjective
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aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
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fully aware of or sensitive to something (often followed byof ).
conscious of one's own faults; He wasn't conscious of the gossip about his past.
- Synonyms:
- percipient, knowing
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having the mental faculties fully active.
He was conscious during the operation.
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known to oneself; felt.
conscious guilt.
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aware of what one is doing.
a conscious liar.
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aware of oneself; self-conscious.
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deliberate; intentional.
a conscious insult; a conscious effort.
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acutely aware of or concerned about.
money-conscious; a diet-conscious society.
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Obsolete. inwardly sensible of wrongdoing.
noun
adjective
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alert and awake; not sleeping or comatose
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aware of one's surroundings, one's own thoughts and motivations, etc
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aware of and giving value or emphasis to a particular fact or phenomenon
I am conscious of your great kindness to me
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( in combination )
clothes-conscious
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done with full awareness; deliberate
a conscious effort
conscious rudeness
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denoting or relating to a part of the human mind that is aware of a person's self, environment, and mental activity and that to a certain extent determines his choices of action
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( as noun )
the conscious is only a small part of the mind
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Related Words
Conscious, aware, cognizant refer to an individual sense of recognition of something within or without oneself. Conscious implies to be awake or awakened to an inner realization of a fact, a truth, a condition, etc.: to be conscious of an extreme weariness. Aware lays the emphasis on sense perceptions insofar as they are the object of conscious recognition: He was aware of the odor of tobacco. Cognizant lays the emphasis on an outer recognition more on the level of reason and knowledge than on the sensory level alone: He was cognizant of their drawbacks.
Other Word Forms
- consciously adverb
- consciousness noun
- half-conscious adjective
- half-consciousness noun
- nonconscious adjective
- nonconsciousness noun
- overconscious adjective
- overconsciousness noun
- quasi-conscious adjective
Etymology
Origin of conscious
First recorded in 1625–35; from Latin conscius “sharing knowledge with,” equivalent to con- con- + sci- (stem of scīre “to know”; science ) + -us -ous; nice
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
"It became clear he had been living alone with an adult who was barely conscious with deteriorating health for days," William said.
From BBC
"This is the person who needs to be punished. He made a conscious decision to do this - a secretive decision."
From BBC
"We're talking about people who are smart, who are socially conscious, people who understand that they don't live in a bubble," Molango said.
From BBC
I’d seen something, I just needed my conscious brain to catch up with my subconscious.
From Literature
Following an intense assessment period, he was diagnosed as being "minimally conscious negative" – where patients show signs of partial conscious awareness inconsistently.
From BBC
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
