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

That could create new opportunities for studying consciousness, memory, emotional processing, and mental health.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 27, 2026

If “The Inheritors” traces the birth of our kind of consciousness, “Pincher Martin” imagines its last stand.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 22, 2026

“Totoro is where my consciousness begins,” Miyazaki once said.

From Salon ● Jul. 15, 2026

The dog trainer said "I genuinely thought I was going to lose her", after Tokyo lost the use of her legs and began drifting in and out of consciousness.

From BBC ● Jul. 12, 2026

We don't even try anymore to raise consciousness here.

From "How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" by Julia Alvarez

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

From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2025

The end of the series really becomes about all of those different consciousnesses having contrasting desires.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 2025

We attempted to be as objective as possible but were also aware that there are countless other exhibitions that, whatever their contributions to the culture at large, live on in individual consciousnesses.

From New York Times ● Sep. 25, 2023

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

But this God who saves us, this personal God, the Consciousness of the Universe who envelops and sustains our consciousnesses, this God who gives human finality to the whole creation—does He exist?

From Tragic Sense Of Life by Flitch, J. E. Crawford (John Ernest Crawford)

Related Words

• alertness
• apprehension
• awareness
• recognition
• sensibility