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subconscious

noun · adjective

Simple meaning

The part of your mind you are not fully thinking about.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

suhbkahnshuhs

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US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

səbˈkɑnʃəs

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.

noun

  1. psychology

    The part of the mind that we are not normally aware of.

adjective

  1. psychologyno longer in technical use

    Occuring in the part of our mind that we are not normally aware of.

  2. Partially conscious.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
C1 · Advanced (estimated)
Frequency
Uncommon
Formality
Technical

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Aura for this meaning

This meaning: The part of the mind that we are not normally aware of.

Used this way, subconscious 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
Matter-of-fact
Usage feel
Neutral and straightforward

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

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

subconscious mindsubconscious levelsubconscious selfsome subconscioussubconscious memorysubconscious desiresubconscious lifesubconscious process

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • subconscious mindnounCompound term

    Psychic activity just below the level of awareness.

Related Words

Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.

More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin

Synonyms

Sense: part of the mind that we are not normally aware of

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.