consciousness

American  

[kon-shuhs-nis] / ˈkɒn ʃəs nɪs /

noun

• consciousnesses
  plural

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.

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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.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• underconsciousness
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• consciousnesses
  plural

Etymology

Origin of consciousness

First recorded in 1625–35; conscious + -ness

Explanation

When you are awake and aware of your surroundings, that's consciousness. There are different types of consciousness, including social consciousness, being aware of injustices in society. The early Latin word conscius meant "with knowing," but it meant a shared knowledge, a meaning that was retained through the 16th Century. John Locke was the first to describe consciousness in relation to the individual, referring to it as “the perception of what passes in a man’s own mind." If you lose consciousness during the performance, we'll wake you up with some smelling salts!

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

consciousness consciousnesses

Christopher Hawley was 22 when he rode X2, stumbled after getting off of it, lost consciousness and died shortly thereafter.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 29, 2026

“If they destroy the Lakers, guys with Kobe back tattoos are going to start the proletariat revolution. I think that the closest we’re getting to class consciousness is fast food and sports teams.”

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

Spiritually inclined YouTubers discussed medbed healing in videos about frequencies, crystals, and fifth-dimension consciousness.

From Slate ● Sep. 22, 2026

A new generation of neuroscientists saw FTD as the perfect sample set to understand what happens when things go awry in the formation of human consciousness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 18, 2026

Even if you’re lucky enough to lose consciousness, you’ll find you still need to get up every half hour just to empty your bladder.

From "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris

Kirsh is a Prodigy scientist working beside Hybrids, a proprietary invention that involves downloading human consciousnesses into synthetic bodies.

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2025

Their brains have been surgically altered, dividing their work life and home life into separate consciousnesses which are described by the company as “innies” and “outies.”

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 15, 2025

In the other central conceit of “Pure Colour,” Mira and her father are paired as dual consciousnesses in a leaf, which functions as an extended metaphor for the interconnected entrapment of grief.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 16, 2022

In 1918, Woolf’s own Hogarth Press published “Prelude,” Mansfield’s masterpiece about an uprooted New Zealand family, in which the point of view floats between the characters’ consciousnesses.

From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2021

How could a predicate become associated with its subject, or a principal clause with its subordinate clause, if they were in separate consciousnesses, and how could the conclusion be drawn from them?

From Naturalism And Religion by Rudolf Otto

Related Words

• alertness
• apprehension
• awareness
• recognition
• sensibility