Definition of consciousness in English:

noun

• 1[mass noun] The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings.

  ‘she failed to regain consciousness and died two days later’

  More example sentences

  • ‘He died in his fifty-eighth year in the course of the following evening without having regained consciousness.’
  • ‘But he developed brain damage, failed to regain consciousness and died three days after the crash.’
  • ‘Once he regains consciousness an assessment of brain damage can be made.’
  • ‘He believes he blacked out at least five times before he regained consciousness in the shallows by the river bank.’
  • ‘When she regained consciousness, she was on a ventilator with a tube down her nose.’
  • ‘He was taken to hospital by ambulance but never regained consciousness and died a week later.’
  • ‘Adverse events include a risk of respiratory arrest, hypotension, and impaired consciousness.’
  • ‘He never regained consciousness and died in hospital on New Year's Day.’
  • ‘Those who recover consciousness often have some paralysis, which can be severe.’
  • ‘He began moaning and groaning once he started to regain consciousness and become aware of the pain in his head.’
  • ‘Secondly, people with head injury and impaired consciousness are unable to give informed consent.’
  • ‘The doctor told him to bring her in if she didn't regain consciousness in half an hour.’
  • ‘He is told that surgery went well, but that the man has not yet regained consciousness.’
  • ‘Without treatment people with hypothermia can rapidly become very ill, lose consciousness and die.’
  • ‘After they regain consciousness, let them rest quietly in a safe place.’
  • ‘On each occasion she was unconscious for a few seconds before regaining consciousness.’
  • ‘She was taken to the Boston Medical Centre but never regained consciousness, and died from head and chest injuries.’
  • ‘He had suffered severe head injuries and failed to regain consciousness, dying two weeks later.’
  • ‘As soon as he regained consciousness after a day in the hospital, he was faced with the amputation decision.’
  • ‘She is blinded by the fall and regains consciousness with unseen things pecking at her.’

  Synonyms

  awareness, wakefulness, alertness, responsiveness, sentience

  View synonyms

• 2A person's awareness or perception of something.

  ‘her acute consciousness of Luke's presence’

  More example sentences

  • ‘That doesn't seem to ruffle the feathers of the American consciousness or make them feel inadequate.’
  • ‘How, then, was the political consciousness of the working class to be developed?’
  • ‘The means and the mode of production, in turn, determine the social consciousness.’
  • ‘I have pursued this thought through art, literature and the religious consciousness of man.’
  • ‘It was the Populists who made a start in developing the political consciousness of ordinary people.’
  • ‘It is no secret that such an expectation is not yet a part of the national consciousness of Indonesia.’
  • ‘So why is it that this terrible scourge has essentially disappeared from our cultural consciousness?’
  • ‘One cannot deny the powerful impact the settlement made on the national consciousness and pride of Americans.’
  • ‘I awoke in the night out of blessed sleep to the depressing consciousness of the pain.’
  • ‘In this election campaign, we aim to raise the political consciousness of masses of people.’
  • ‘The political consciousness is not as clear and coherent as it was in the great days of radical Hollywood.’
  • ‘Historical records reveal a certain consciousness of the passage from youth to adulthood.’
  • ‘This is a big step towards raising the political consciousness of the working class.’
  • ‘Increased consciousness of empire and respect for the clarity of French classicism had much to do with this change.’
  • ‘Where were the political prisoners in the student consciousness of the late nineties?’
  • ‘They can rest safe in the knowledge that they have stamped their principles on the public consciousness for a very long time to come.’
  • ‘This is the false consciousness that a materialist outlook seeks to impose on us.’
  • ‘Science needs icons like this to lodge its ideas within the public consciousness.’
  • ‘Admittedly it was a couple of years before it began to make an impression on the public consciousness.’
  • ‘Environmental consciousness is now driven by the belief that nature must be saved or at least protected from human beings.’

  Synonyms

  awareness of, knowledge of the existence of, alertness to, sensitivity to, realization of, cognizance of, mindfulness of, perception of, apprehension of, recognition of

  View synonyms

  1. 2.1The fact of awareness by the mind of itself and the world.
     ‘consciousness emerges from the operations of the brain’

     More example sentences

     • ‘What we are supposing to be absent in the zombie's mind is just phenomenal consciousness.’
     • ‘Have we grown into organisms of thought, defined as much by our ways of thinking and our consciousnesses as by our physical bodies?’
     • ‘Is there a consciousness or intelligence directing an energy form yet unknown to us?’
     • ‘If we are going to use the characteristics of our consciousness as an argument against free will, then what does that say?’
     • ‘Studying consciousness tells us more about how the world is fundamentally strange.’
     • ‘The reason he gives is that there is a plurality of consciousnesses, and there also exist plurally the qualities of desire, hatred, effort, pleasure, and pain.’
     • ‘We are not aware of this unity because our consciousness is covered with desires and thoughts.’
     • ‘Shall we start off then by drawing a distinction between consciousness and mind?’
     • ‘To have any mental states or mental life at all, a being must have some awareness or consciousness.’
     • ‘And if a computer arrived at a sense of its own consciousness, would its faultless logic also tell it that it must be mad?’
     • ‘At the time of initiation, the disciples experience the true nature, or at least glimpse the wisdom of their mind and the wisdom energies of their consciousnesses, mental events and physical elements.’
     • ‘In fact, unified consciousness can break down in what look to be two distinct ways.’
     • ‘My consciousness and my sense of self do seem vital to me being who I am.’
     • ‘If our thoughts and consciousnesses do not depend on the actual substances in our brains but rather on the structures, patterns, and relationships between parts, then Omega beings could think.’