subconscious

[ suhb-kon-shuhs ]

adjective

1. existing or operating in the mind beneath or beyond consciousness: Compare preconscious, unconscious.

   the subconscious self.

2. imperfectly or not wholly conscious:

   subconscious motivations.

noun

1. the totality of mental processes of which the individual is not aware; unreportable mental activities.

subconscious

/ sʌbˈkɒnʃəs /

adjective

1. acting or existing without one's awareness

   subconscious motive

noun

1. See unconscious, preconscious
   psychoanal that part of the mind which is on the fringe of consciousness and contains material of which it is possible to become aware by redirecting attention Compare preconscious unconscious

Derived Forms

• subˈconsciously, adverb
• subˈconsciousness, noun

Other Words From

• sub·con·scious·ly adverb
• sub·con·scious·ness noun
• non·sub·con·scious adjective
• non·sub·con·scious·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of subconscious¹

First recorded in 1825–35; sub- + conscious

Example Sentences

Somebody that I can get along with and has a similar interest, that comes from a similar background…a lot of that subconscious.

From Search Engine Land

O’Meara, 65, describes the work as something that simply “emerged from my subconscious.”

From Washington Post

In the short two-and-a-half chapters of her autobiography that relates the years between infancy and before the arrival of Sullivan, Keller does an extraordinary job of describing how an experimental scientist’s subconscious mind works.

From Nautilus

All credit to the human subconscious—it’s just this floating, dreamlike state.

From Singularity Hub 

Search deeper, and you might find your father going up for a third plate and something remaining of the “dessert pizzas” lodged in your subconscious.

From Eater

Their motives were the usual mix of the honorable, the base, and the subconscious.

From The Daily Beast

The third eye would seem to symbolize a hidden inner knowledge or the subconscious.

From The Daily Beast

So start by recalibrating your own, perhaps subconscious, expectations.

From The Daily Beast

I knew that on a subconscious level at the writing stage, because of the way the stories went together.

From The Daily Beast

His latest film, A Dangerous Method, could be seen as the culmination of his subconscious-self trilogy.

From The Daily Beast

Flick awoke by one of those subconscious mental perceptions that the Society for Psychical Research is at present investigating.

From Project Gutenberg

What he had said in his sleep—was it in reality the words of unconsciousness, or was it subconscious knowledge?

From Project Gutenberg

But he also had come with the subconscious plan of getting at anything that would help Withers.

From Project Gutenberg

Whatever this entity might be, an entity it was, entirely distinct from his own conscious or subconscious mind.

From Project Gutenberg

Never, in the uttermost depths of his subconscious, would he have been likely to label himself Popsy.

From Project Gutenberg