stream of consciousness

¹ American  

noun

1. Psychology. thought regarded as a succession of ideas and images constantly moving forward in time.

2. interior monologue.

---

stream-of-consciousness ² American  

[streem-uhv-kon-shuhs-nis] / ˈstrim əvˈkɒn ʃəs nɪs /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characterized by a manner of writing in which a character's thoughts or perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, without regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure, distinctions between various levels of reality, or the like.

   a stream-of-consciousness novel; a stream-of-consciousness technique.

---

stream of consciousness British  

noun

1. psychol the continuous flow of ideas, thoughts, and feelings forming the content of an individual's consciousness. The term was originated by William James

2. 1. a literary technique that reveals the flow of thoughts and feelings of characters through long passages of soliloquy

   2. ( as modifier )

      a stream-of-consciousness novel

---

stream of consciousness Cultural  

1. A kind of writing that presents the thoughts of a person or character as they occur. Stream-of-consciousness writing uses devices such as characters speaking to themselves, free association, and lists of words. William Faulkner, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf wrote stream-of-consciousness novels.

---

Etymology

Origin of stream of consciousness

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

It’s the breath marks of Emily Dickinson, the stream of consciousness of Virginia Woolf, the head-clogging maximalism of David Foster Wallace, the self-aggrandizing asides of Joel Stein.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 20, 2025

The most important of these is the stream of consciousness technique that’s developed in ways that had never been attempted before.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2025

As she drove to work along Lake Washington Boulevard one day last summer, TEB took out her phone and started recording a stream of consciousness about dating, romance and self-love.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 19, 2023

He didn’t just spin legato lines in the searching, conversational Nocturne; he expounded entire legato paragraphs in an eloquent, unbroken stream of consciousness.

From New York Times • May 5, 2023

When he gives notes to the cast in the order in which he has written them into the journal, they come out in a kind of stream of consciousness.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove