conscious
[kon-shuhs]
- aware of one's own existence, sensations, thoughts, surroundings, etc.
- fully aware of or sensitive to something (often followed by of): conscious of one's own faults; He wasn't conscious of the gossip about his past.
- having the mental faculties fully active: He was conscious during the operation.
- known to oneself; felt: conscious guilt.
- aware of what one is doing: a conscious liar.
- aware of oneself; self-conscious.
- deliberate; intentional: a conscious insult; a conscious effort.
- acutely aware of or concerned about: money-conscious; a diet-conscious society.
- Obsolete. inwardly sensible of wrongdoing.
Show More
- the conscious, Psychoanalysis. the part of the mind comprising psychic material of which the individual is aware.
Show More
Origin of conscious
Synonyms
Synonym study
2. 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.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for over-conscious
Historical Examples
He was over-conscious, too, of the stains on his hands as he held it out.
Cleo The MagnificentLouis Zangwill
Certainly it is possible that over-conscious art is too popular to-day.
Children's Books and Their IllustratorsGleeson White
His freedom ran into undue licence; and he seems to be over-conscious, even proud, of his fantastical way of writing.
The Poetry Of Robert BrowningStopford A. Brooke
conscious
- alert and awake; not sleeping or comatose
- aware of one's surroundings, one's own thoughts and motivations, etc
- aware of and giving value or emphasis to a particular fact or phenomenonI am conscious of your great kindness to me
- (in combination)clothes-conscious
- done with full awareness; deliberatea conscious effort; conscious rudeness
- 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
- (as noun)the conscious is only a small part of the mind
Show More
Compare unconscious
Word Origin
C17: from Latin conscius sharing knowledge, from com- with + scīre to know
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for over-conscious
conscious
adj.
c.1600, "knowing, privy to," from Latin conscius "knowing, aware," from conscire (see conscience); probably a loan-translation of Greek syneidos. A word adopted from the Latin poets and much mocked at first. Sense of "active and awake" is from 1837.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
conscious
(kŏn′shəs)- Having an awareness of one's environment and one's own existence, sensations, and thoughts.
- Intentionally conceived or done; deliberate.
Show More
- In psychoanalysis, the component of waking awareness perceptible by a person at any given instant.
Show More
The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.