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• stream of consciousness
  stream of consciousness

  noun

  thought regarded as a succession of ideas and images constantly moving forward in time.
• stream-of-consciousness
  stream-of-consciousness

  adjective

  of, relating to, or characterized by a manner of writing in which a character's thoughts or perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, without regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure, distinctions between various levels of reality, or the like.

stream of consciousness

¹ American  

noun

1. Psychology. thought regarded as a succession of ideas and images constantly moving forward in time.

2. interior monologue.

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stream-of-consciousness ² American  

[streem-uhv-kon-shuhs-nis] / ˈstrim əvˈkɒn ʃəs nɪs /

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characterized by a manner of writing in which a character's thoughts or perceptions are presented as occurring in random form, without regard for logical sequences, syntactic structure, distinctions between various levels of reality, or the like.

   a stream-of-consciousness novel; a stream-of-consciousness technique.

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stream of consciousness British  

noun

1. psychol the continuous flow of ideas, thoughts, and feelings forming the content of an individual's consciousness. The term was originated by William James

2. 1. a literary technique that reveals the flow of thoughts and feelings of characters through long passages of soliloquy

   2. ( as modifier )

      a stream-of-consciousness novel

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stream of consciousness Cultural  

1. A kind of writing that presents the thoughts of a person or character as they occur. Stream-of-consciousness writing uses devices such as characters speaking to themselves, free association, and lists of words. William Faulkner, James Joyce, and Virginia Woolf wrote stream-of-consciousness novels.

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Etymology

Origin of stream of consciousness

First recorded in 1885–90

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

stream of consciousness stream-of-consciousness

Winter's metaphorical - often stream of consciousness - lyrics capture something tangible about a world where comfort, terror and societal decay co-exist.

From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2026

FAHMI: We think of the app as your stream of consciousness.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025

I didn’t know what was gonna happen — whatever it was, it was stream of consciousness.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2024

As she drove to work along Lake Washington Boulevard one day last summer, TEB took out her phone and started recording a stream of consciousness about dating, romance and self-love.

From Seattle Times ● Jul. 19, 2023

When he gives notes to the cast in the order in which he has written them into the journal, they come out in a kind of stream of consciousness.

From "Drama High" by Michael Sokolove

In this entry from September, his stream-of-consciousness writing about the Musk situation reads like ChatGPT reasoning through a messy problem:

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 9, 2026

He mostly just gave his usual stream-of-consciousness "weave" about whatever topic engaged him that day, interspersed with some rote words on the teleprompter written by a campaign staffer.

From Salon ● Jan. 24, 2025

Knowing she wanted to honour her heroes, á la Daft Punk’s Teachers, she flicked through her phone 'til she re-discovered that late-night stream-of-consciousness.

From BBC ● Oct. 16, 2024

Mom and Dad themselves, whose stream-of-consciousness questions add to a climate of constant interruption and distraction from learning.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 9, 2024

Working nights, I spent my days in experimental writing, filling endless pages with stream-of-consciousness Negro dialect, trying to depict the dwellers of the Black Belt as I felt and saw them.

From "Black Boy" by Richard Wright