Trivia Time

Conscious comes from Latin roots meaning what?

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conscious

American  

[kon-shuhs] / ˈkɒn ʃəs /

adjective

1. aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.

2. 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

3. having the mental faculties fully active.

   He was conscious during the operation.

4. known to oneself; felt.

   conscious guilt.

5. aware of what one is doing.

   a conscious liar.

6. aware of oneself; self-conscious.

7. deliberate; intentional.

   a conscious insult; a conscious effort.

8. acutely aware of or concerned about.

   money-conscious; a diet-conscious society.

9. Obsolete. inwardly sensible of wrongdoing.

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noun

• consciouses
  plural

1. Psychoanalysis. the conscious, the part of the mind comprising psychic material of which the individual is aware.

conscious British  

/ ˈkɒnʃəs /

adjective

1. 1. alert and awake; not sleeping or comatose

   2. aware of one's surroundings, one's own thoughts and motivations, etc

2. 1. aware of and giving value or emphasis to a particular fact or phenomenon

      I am conscious of your great kindness to me

   2. ( in combination )

      clothes-conscious

3. done with full awareness; deliberate

   a conscious effort

   conscious rudeness

4. 1. 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

   2. ( as noun )

      the conscious is only a small part of the mind

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Synonym Usage

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

Derived Forms

• consciousness
  noun
• half-consciousness
  noun
• nonconsciousness
  noun
• overconsciousness
  noun
• half-conscious
  adjective
• nonconscious
  adjective
• overconscious
  adjective
• quasi-conscious
  adjective
• consciously
  adverb

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• consciouses
  plural

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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”; see science) + -us -ous; cf. nice

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Explanation

Conscious is an adjective that simply means alert and awake. If you fall from a tree and smack your head on the side of the wheelbarrow, there's a good chance you won't be conscious afterward. Conscious is a Latin word whose original meaning was “knowing" or "aware.” So a conscious person has an awareness of her environment and her own existence and thoughts. If you're "self-conscious," you're overly aware and even embarrassed by how you think you look or act. But that sounds better than being unconscious, or totally unaware and out of it.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

conscious consciouses

Suleyman argues that today’s AI systems are not conscious and that is how they must remain.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

There is no evidence that AI systems are conscious, deserve rights or welfare, he said, and he is surprised by the pushback to his September essay criticizing Anthropic for speculating about Claude’s consciousness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 2, 2026

Speaking at the time, he said: "I'm thrilled. It still makes me a little self conscious to think there's a building named after me."

From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026

A mushroom long consumed by communities in Asia may contain a substance capable of revealing new information about the human brain and how it creates conscious experience.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 25, 2026

And with the third I was conscious of a warm, stinging sensation in my abdomen, to the left of my navel.

From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt

But Omaid Sharifi, a civil society activist based in Kabul who opposes capital punishment, believes the hangings will have little impact on the consciouses of the accused.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2014

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Related Words

• attentive
• aware
• certain
• cognizant
• informed
• keen
• mindful
• responsive
• sensible
• sure
• vigilant
• watchful

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