consciousness
/ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.13 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
13
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "Of course it’s natural to think twice about whether your cell phone truly “knows” a favorite number, your GPS is really “figuring out” the best route home, and your Roomba is genuinely “trying” to clean the floor. But as information-processing systems become more sophisticated—as their representations of the world become richer, their goals are arranged into hierarchies of subgoals within subgoals, and their actions for attaining the goals become more diverse and less predictable—it starts to look like hominid chauvinism to insist that they don’t. (Whether information and computation explain consciousness, in addition to knowledge, intelligence, and purpose, is a question I’ll turn to in the final chapter.)"
- "To lose consciousness after striking one's head"
- "Consciousness is universal and precedes even the formation of our solar system."
- "Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness."
- "Although the Celebrity was almost impervious to sarcasm, he was now beginning to exhibit visible signs of uneasiness, the consciousness dawning upon him that his eccentricity was not receiving the ovation it merited."
- "The solitude and the savage freedom filled his heart with life and buoyancy. Again he was Tarzan of the Apes—every sense alert against the chance of surprise by some jungle enemy—yet treading lightly and with head erect, in proud consciousness of his might."
Etymology
Etymology tree English conscious Proto-Germanic *-in- Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ti Proto-Germanic *-ōną Proto-Germanic *-inōną Proto-Indo-European *-dyé- Proto-Germanic *-atjaną Proto-Indo-European *-tus Proto-Germanic *-þuz Proto-Germanic *-assuz Proto-Germanic *-inassuz Proto-West Germanic *-nassī Old English -nes Middle English -nesse English -ness English consciousness From conscious + -ness.
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkɑnʃəsnəs/
- British English: /ˈkɒnʃəsnəs/