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

With the help of two other passengers, Grković said she was able to pull her husband - who she said lost consciousness three times - back inside.

From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026

Can I bear the consciousness that every endearment he bestows is a sacrifice made on principle?

From "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë

“Alien: Earth” follows a group of children whose consciousnesses are transferred into synthetic adult bodies.

From Salon ● Dec. 14, 2025

Plus, you have all of the 23 other consciousnesses that were on the severed floor that Dichen so beautifully lived out.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 21, 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

These national and racial collective consciousnesses of to-day are things as vague, as fluctuating as mists or clouds, they melt, dissolve into one another, they coalesce, they split.

From New Worlds For Old A Plain Account of Modern Socialism by Wells, H. G. (Herbert George)

Related Words

• alertness
• apprehension
• awareness
• recognition
• sensibility