different between conscious vs conscientous

English

Etymology

From Latin c?nscius, itself from con- (a form of com- (“together”)) + sc?re (“to know”) + -us.

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: /k?n?sh?s/ IPA^(key): /?k?n.??s/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?k?n.??s/, /?k?nt??s/

Adjective

conscious (comparative more conscious, superlative most conscious)

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

3. Aware of one's own existence; aware of one's own awareness.
   • 1999, Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now, Hodder and Stoughton, pages 61–62:

     The best indicator of your level of consciousness is how you deal with life's challenges when they come.  Through those challenges, an already unconscious person tends to become more deeply unconscious, and a conscious person more intensely conscious.

4. Aware of, sensitive to; observing and noticing, or being strongly interested in or concerned about.
   • Once again the animals were conscious of a vague uneasiness.

5. Deliberate, intentional, done with awareness of what one is doing.
   • 1907, Brigham Henry Roberts, Defense of the Faith and the Saints, volume 1, page 43:

     He candidly confesses that it is an effort to account for Joseph Smith upon some other hypothesis than that he was a conscious fraud, bent on deceiving mankind.
6. Known or felt personally, internally by a person.

   conscious guilt

7. Self-conscious.
   • 1616—1650, Richard Crashaw:

     The conscious water saw its God, and blushed.

Antonyms

• asleep
• unaware
• unconscious

Derived terms

Related terms

• conscience

Translations

Noun

conscious (plural consciouses)

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

English

Adjective

conscientous (comparative more conscientous, superlative most conscientous)

1. Misspelling of conscientious.