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¹conscious

adjective con·scious \ˈkän(t)-shəs\

: awake and able to understand what is happening around you

: aware of something (such as a fact or feeling) : knowing that something exists or is happening

: known or felt by yourself

Full Definition of CONSCIOUS

: perceiving, apprehending, or noticing with a degree of controlled thought or observation <conscious of having succeeded> <was conscious that someone was watching>

archaic : sharing another's knowledge or awareness of an inward state or outward fact

: personally felt <conscious guilt>

: capable of or marked by thought, will, design, or perception

: self-conscious

: having mental faculties not dulled by sleep, faintness, or stupor : awake <became conscious after the anesthesia wore off>

: done or acting with critical awareness <a conscious effort to do better>

a : likely to notice, consider, or appraise <a bargain-conscious shopper>

b : being concerned or interested <a budget-conscious businessman>

c : marked by strong feelings or notions <a race-conscious society>

— con·scious·ly adverb

See conscious defined for English-language learners

See conscious defined for kids

Examples of CONSCIOUS

The chances of being admitted conscious to a hospital without being pressed to produce a living will, have become virtually nil … —Joan Didion, New York Review of Books, 9 June 2005
“Was she good-looking?” “Actually, my conscious mind no longer remembers anything about her physical appearance. She went the way of my seventh-grade French.” —Joseph Wambaugh, Finnegan's Week, 1994
Incidentally, neither my mother nor I was conscious of any rudeness. —Flannery O'Connor, The Habit of Being, 1979
Bilbo bowed. He had no hat to take off, and was painfully conscious of his many missing buttons. —J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, 1937
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Origin of CONSCIOUS

Latin conscius, from com- + scire to know

First Known Use: 1592

Related to CONSCIOUS

Synonyms: alive, apprehensive, aware, cognizant, mindful, sensible, sentient, ware, witting

Antonyms: insensible, oblivious, unaware, unconscious, unmindful, unwitting

Synonym Discussion of CONSCIOUS

aware, cognizant, conscious, sensible, alive, awake mean having knowledge of something. aware implies vigilance in observing or alertness in drawing inferences from what one experiences <aware of changes in climate>. cognizant implies having special or certain knowledge as from firsthand sources <not fully cognizant of the facts>. conscious implies that one is focusing one's attention on something or is even preoccupied by it <conscious that my heart was pounding>. sensible implies direct or intuitive perceiving especially of intangibles or of emotional states or qualities <sensible of a teacher's influence>. alive adds to sensible the implication of acute sensitivity to something <alive to the thrill of danger>. awake implies that one has become alive to something and is on the alert <a country always awake to the threat of invasion>.

Other Psychology Terms

fetish, hypochondria, intelligence, mania, narcissism, neurosis, pathological, psychosis, schadenfreude, subliminal

²conscious

noun con·scious \ˈkän(t)-shəs\

Definition of CONSCIOUS

: consciousness 5

Examples of CONSCIOUS

For myself, ever since 1922, when I saw my first picture, films have been barreling through my conscious to my unconscious, but insofar as they remain in my conscious, they get themselves arranged in hierarchies of value and, more important, affection. —Stanley Kauffmann, Before My Eyes, (1974) 1980

Origin of CONSCIOUS

(see ¹conscious)

First Known Use: 1919

Other Psychology Terms

fetish, hypochondria, intelligence, mania, narcissism, neurosis, pathological, psychosis, schadenfreude, subliminal

CONSCIOUS Defined for Kids

conscious

adjective con·scious \ˈkän-shəs\

Definition of CONSCIOUS for Kids

: aware of facts, feelings, or some particular condition or situation <He … was painfully conscious of his many missing buttons. — J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit>

: known or felt by a person's inner self <conscious guilt>

: mentally awake or active <He remained conscious following the accident.>

: intentional <I made a conscious effort to be polite.>

— con·scious·ly adverb

Word Root of CONSCIOUS

The Latin word scīre, meaning “to know” or “to understand,” gives us the root sci. Words from the Latin scīre have something to do with knowing or understanding. Science is the understanding of the world and how everything in it works. A person's conscience is the knowledge of right and wrong and the feeling that he or she should do right. Anything that is conscious knows what it is feeling.