unconsciousness

British  

/ ʌnˈkɒnʃəsnɪs /

noun

1. the state of being without normal sensory awareness; insensibility

---

Explanation

Unconsciousness is a state of being unaware of what's going on around you, either because you're not awake or because you're simply oblivious. If you fall asleep during a movie, and your unconsciousness means you'll miss the ending. Even if everyone in your family is mad at each other, your little cousin's unconsciousness of the argument might make it easier to have a peaceful Thanksgiving. And after the meal, the great quantities of food eaten may result in the unconsciousness of half the guests, who doze in the living room, snoring softly. In both kinds of unconsciousness, someone isn't conscious, or aware, of their surroundings.

Example Sentences

Unconsciousness is the taproot of these various kinds of enslavement we experience today.

From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 5, 2024

Unconsciousness and lower heart and breathing rates occur.

From BBC • Jun. 23, 2015

Unconsciousness then supervened, and, with the aid of another of the hotel guests, I carried him to his room.

From The Shrieking Pit by Rees, Arthur J. (Arthur John)

The prolonged and thousand-times repeated glorification of Unconsciousness, Silence, Renunciation, all comes to this: We are to leave the region of things unknowable, and hold fast to the duty that lies nearest.

From Critical Miscellanies, Vol. I Essay 2: Carlyle by Morley, John

The memory of that first state of Freedom and paradisaic Unconsciousness has faded away into an ideal poetic dream.

From A Century of English Essays An Anthology Ranging from Caxton to R. L. Stevenson & the Writers of Our Own Time by Rhys, Ernest

Related Words

• oblivion