CONSCIOUSNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does consciousness mean? 

• CONSCIOUSNESS (noun)
  The noun CONSCIOUSNESS has 2 senses:

1. an alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation

2. having knowledge of

  Familiarity information: CONSCIOUSNESS used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONSCIOUSNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An alert cognitive state in which you are aware of yourself and your situation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Context example:

he lost consciousness

Hypernyms ("consciousness" is a kind of...):

cognitive state; state of mind (the state of a person's cognitive processes)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "consciousness"):

stream of consciousness (the continuous flow of ideas and feelings that constitute an individual's conscious experience)

ego; self (your consciousness of your own identity)

awareness; sentience (state of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness)

aesthesia; esthesia; sensibility (mental responsiveness and awareness)

waking (the state of remaining awake)

Antonym:

unconsciousness (a state lacking normal awareness of the self or environment)

Derivation:

conscious (knowing and perceiving; having awareness of surroundings and sensations and thoughts)

conscious (intentionally conceived)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Having knowledge of

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

awareness; cognisance; cognizance; consciousness; knowingness

Context example:

their intelligence and general knowingness was impressive

Hypernyms ("consciousness" is a kind of...):

knowing (a clear and certain mental apprehension)

Attribute:

aware; cognisant; cognizant ((sometimes followed by 'of') having or showing knowledge or understanding or realization or perception)

incognizant; unaware ((often followed by 'of') not aware)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "consciousness"):

self-awareness (awareness of your own individuality)

feel (an intuitive awareness)

sense (a general conscious awareness)

Derivation:

conscious ((followed by 'of') showing realization or recognition of something)

 Context examples 

I looked at Agnes when she said these words, without detecting in her any consciousness of Uriah's design.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The time did not seem long, but very, very awful, till I recovered consciousness again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There was about him no consciousness of sin.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

You read the consciousness of life that it is alive; but still no further away, no endlessness of life.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I hurried to him, but he passed away without having ever recovered his consciousness.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Even if this lady should never recover consciousness, we can still reconstruct the events of last night and insure that justice be done.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The whole consciousness of my life lorn, my love lost, my hope quenched, my faith death-struck, swayed full and mighty above me in one sullen mass.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And Amy went on with her work, in the proud consciousness of virtue and the successful utterance of two long words in a breath.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

We put him to bed; but the paralysis has spread, he has shown no sign of returning consciousness, and I think that we shall hardly find him alive.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He found time to admire the ease with which she sat down, then lurched toward a chair facing her, overwhelmed with consciousness of the awkward figure he was cutting.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)