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conscious

adjective · noun

Simple meaning

Aware of one's own existence.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

kahnshuhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈkɑnʃəs

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

adjective

  1. Aware of one's own existence; aware of one's own awareness.

  2. Alert, awake; with one's mental faculties active.

  3. Aware of, sensitive to; observing and noticing, or being strongly interested in or concerned about.

  4. Deliberate, intentional, done with awareness of what one is doing.

  5. Known or felt personally, internally by a person.

noun

  1. The part of the mind that is aware of itself; the consciousness.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
B2 · Upper Intermediate
Frequency
Moderately Common
Typical Use
Neutral / general English

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: Aware of one's own existence; aware of one's own awareness.

Used this way, conscious is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.

Emotional tone
Neutral
Formality
Neutral
Intensity
Not strongly marked
How common
Moderately common
Connotation
No strong connotation
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

Nearby words

  • semiconscious , rarer, so it draws attention

Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.

More ways to use conscious

  • “Remained conscious during the operation.”adjective

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Knowing

conscious awareness

Self

conscious mind

Other combinations

conscious effortfully consciousconscious experienceconscious lifeconscious decisionconscious thought

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Similar Words, What’s the Difference?

Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.

  • self-conscious

    Aware of oneself as an individual being.

  • semiconscious

    Neither fully conscious nor unconscious, partially aware but confused or distracted.

  • sentient

    Possessing human-like awareness and intelligence.

Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Word family

Words built from the same root.

  • consciencenounDerived noun

    Motivation deriving logically from ethical or moral principles that govern a person's thoughts and actions.

  • consciouslyadverbDerived adverb

    With awareness.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Antonyms

adjective

Sense: aware of one's own existence

unconscious

noun

Sense: part of the mind that is aware of itself

unconscious

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.