consciousness

[kon-shuhs-nis]

noun

1. the state of being conscious; awareness of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.

2. the thoughts and feelings, collectively, of an individual or of an aggregate of people.

   the moral consciousness of a nation.

3. full activity of the mind and senses, as in waking life.

   to regain consciousness after fainting.

4. awareness of something for what it is; internal knowledge.

   consciousness of wrongdoing.

5. concern, interest, or acute awareness.

   class consciousness.

6. the mental activity of which a person is aware as contrasted with unconscious mental processes.

7. Philosophy.,  the mind or the mental faculties as characterized by thought, feelings, and volition.

Other Word Forms

• underconsciousness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of consciousness¹

First recorded in 1625–35; conscious + -ness

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. raise one's consciousness, to increase one's awareness and understanding of one's own needs, behavior, attitudes, etc., especially as a member of a particular social or political group.

Example Sentences

An intimate historical consciousness animates the poem, as it does nearly everything Heaney wrote.

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“The Simpsons,” which debuted in December 1989, has been on television for so long that it’s become part of the national consciousness.

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There’s an educational imperative at the heart of “Suffs,” which deals with a subject that has been marginalized in schools and in the collective consciousness.

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Why does his story have such a hold on America’s consciousness?

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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.

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Related Words

• alertness www.thesaurus.com
• apprehension 
• awareness 
• recognition 
• sensibility