conscience
UK/ˈkɒn.ʃəns//ˈkɑn.ʃəns/
conscience noun: the ethical or moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects a person’s own behaviour and forms their attitude to their past actions.
Noun
conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)
- The ethical or moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects a person’s own behaviour and forms their attitude to their past actions.
- Your conscience is your highest authority.
- Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.1949, Albert Einstein, as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist
- A personification of the moral sense of right and wrong, usually in the form of a person, a being or merely a voice that gives moral lessons and advices.
- Consciousness; thinking; awareness, especially self-awareness.
- Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
- Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
conscience meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
conscience in Hindi
- moral sense
- विवेक vivek, अन्तरात्मा antarātmā, अंतःकरण antaḥkaraṇ
conscience in Tamil
- மனச்சான்று
conscience in Marathi
- conscience
- सदसद्विवेकबुद्धी sadsadvivekbuddhī, अंतःकरण antaḥkaraṇ
conscience in Urdu
- moral sense
- ضَمِیر zamīr, باطِن bātin, اِیمان īmān
More languagesFewer languages
- conscience in Bengali
- বিবেক bibek
- conscience in Telugu
- అంతరాత్ antarāt
- conscience in Malayalam
- മനസ്സാക്ഷി manassākṣi
- conscience in Kannada
- ಅಂತಃಕರಣ antaḥkaraṇa
- conscience in Punjabi
- ਜ਼ਮੀਰ zamīr
- conscience in Gujarati
- અંતઃકરણ, વિવેક, અંતરાત્મા
- conscience in Odia
- ଇମାନ୍ imān
- conscience in Sanskrit
- मनस्साक्षिन् manassākṣin, अन्तःकरण antaḥkaraṇa
- conscience in Assamese
- ৱিৱেক wiwek
- conscience in Nepali
- विवेक, अन्तस्करण
- conscience in Pashto
- وجدان wejdān, ضمير zamīr
- conscience in Tagalog
- budhi
- conscience in Arabic
- ضَمِير ḍamīr, طَوِيَّة ṭawiyya, وِجْدَان wijdān
- conscience in Malay
- kesedaran
- conscience in Indonesian
- hati nurani
- conscience in Thai
- สำนึก sǎm-nʉ́k, มโนธรรม má-noo-tam, จิตสำนึก
- conscience in Vietnamese
- lương tâm
- conscience in Myanmar
- အသိတရား a.si.ta.ra:
Examples of conscience in a sentence
- As for Grierson, he poured liquor into himself as if it were so much soothing syrup, demonstrating that a good digestion is the highest form of good conscience.1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 159:
- [“]Twer is not a friend of mine testifying against me reluctantly and for conscience’ sake, as the prosecution would have you believe.1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation, Panther Books Ltd, published 1974, part V: The Merchant Princes, chapter 14, page 175:
- ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […]?1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:
Forms of conscience
| plural | consciences |
|---|
Origin of conscience
From Middle English conscience, from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”) (a calque of Ancient Greek σῠνείδησῐς (sŭneídēsĭs)), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).
Words formed from conscience
- a good conscience is a soft pillow
- bad conscience
- conscience clause
- conscienced
- conscienceless
- consciencelike
- conscience money
- conscience-money
- conscience-proof
- conscience round
- conscience vote
- consciencewise
- consciencism
- consciencist
- conscientious
- examination of conscience
- exile of conscience
- freedom of conscience
- guilty conscience
- in all conscience
- in conscience
- in good conscience
- liberty of conscience
- make conscience
- my conscience
- of all conscience
- on one's conscience
- pang of conscience
- prisoner of conscience
- pseudoconscience
- speak one's conscience
- unconscienced
Phrases with conscience
Questions about conscience
- What does conscience mean?
- Conscience means the ethical or moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects a person’s own behaviour and forms their attitude to their past actions.
- What is conscience in Hindi?
- Conscience in Hindi is विवेक (vivek), अन्तरात्मा (antarātmā), अंतःकरण (antaḥkaraṇ). See Conscience meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use conscience in a sentence?
- As for Grierson, he poured liquor into himself as if it were so much soothing syrup, demonstrating that a good digestion is the highest form of good conscience.
- What part of speech is conscience?
- Conscience is a noun.
- How do you pronounce conscience?
- Conscience is pronounced /ˈkɒn.ʃəns/ (UK).
- What is the plural of conscience?
- The plural of conscience is consciences.
Words near conscience in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: conscience (page history and authors); conscience (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); अंतःकरण (Marathi) (page history and authors); ಅಂತಃಕರಣ (Kannada) (page history and authors); conscience (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ଇମାନ୍ (Odia) (page history and authors); ৱিৱেক (Assamese) (page history and authors); conscience (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-conscience.ogg.
Cite this entry: “conscience.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/conscience. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.