presence of mind
Syllables: pres·ence of mindUK/ˌpɹɛzn̩s əv ˈmaɪnd//ˌpɹɛz(ə)ns əv ˈmaɪnd/
presence of mind noun: focused alertness, good sense, quick-thinking resourcefulness, or stability of feeling and thought, especially in spite of circumstances which are distracting, stressful, or otherwise challenging.
Noun
presence of mind (uncountable)
- Focused alertness, good sense, quick-thinking resourcefulness, or stability of feeling and thought, especially in spite of circumstances which are distracting, stressful, or otherwise challenging.
- [A]s you are to hear the moſt unexpected and ſurprizing thing that perhaps ever befel any Family in the VVorld, I beg you to promiſe me you vvill receive it vvith Compoſure and a Preſence of Mind ſuitable to a Man of Senſe.1722 (indicated as 1721), [Daniel Defoe], The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. […], London: […] W[illiam Rufus] Chetwood, […]; and T. Edling, […], published 1722, →OCLC, page...
- [T]his magnificent palace would have infallibly been burnt down to the ground, if, by a presence of mind unusual to me, I had not suddenly thought of an expedient.1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part I (A Voyage to Lilliput)
- Synonyms:
- self-possession
- Antonyms:
- flakiness, flightiness, spaciness
presence of mind meaning in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada and Sanskrit
presence of mind in Tamil
- மன முன்னிலை
presence of mind in Malayalam
- equanimity, composure, self-possession
- മനസ്സാന്നിദ്ധ്യം, മനസ്സന്നിധാനം, സ്ഥെെര്യം, മനസ്ഥെെര്യം, നിരുദ്വേഗത, തൽക്കാലബുദ്ധി
presence of mind in Kannada
- ಏಕಾಗ್ರತೆ, ಚಿತ್ತಸ್ಥೈರ್ಯ, ಸಮಯಪ್ರಜ್ಞೆ, ಸಮಯಸ್ಫೂರ್ತಿ
presence of mind in Sanskrit
- presence of mind, genius, wit
- प्रतिभा pratibhā
More languagesFewer languages
- presence of mind in Thai
- สติ sà-dtì
Examples of presence of mind in a sentence
- [S]he snatched a pistol from the wall, on which some fire-arms hung, and while she screamed to her father to awake, had the presence of mind to present it at the intruder.1826, [Walter Scott], chapter VII, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald...
- During the whole agitating scene, Lillie kept up her presence of mind, and was perfectly aware of what she was about; […]1871, Harriet Beecher Stowe, “Wedding, and Wedding-trip”, in Pink and White Tyranny: […], Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC, page 56:
- It speaks well for Barrett's presence of mind that he had grasped the situation and decided on his line of action before Welch went, and the Head turned his attention to him.1902 September 18, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “In which the Affairs of Various Persons are Wound Up”, in The Pothunters, London...
- Somebody had the presence of mind to give [Christopher] Reeve mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and the paramedics arrived about a minute later.2001 June 24, Roger Rosenblatt, “New Hopes, New Dreams”, in Time, New York, N.Y.: Time Inc., →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 30...
Synonyms of presence of mind
Antonyms
Origin of presence of mind
Calque of Latin praesentia animī, from praesentia (“state of being present, presence”) + animī (the genitive singular of animus (“intellect, mind”)).
Words that rhyme with presence of mind
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- rind
- signed
- unbind
- unkind
- unmind
- aligned
- chined
- combined
- defined
- designed
- Glynde
- hind
- inclined
- intertwined
- rebind
- spined
- to one's mind
- unassigned
- undersigned
- uninclined
- unlined
- upwind
- vined
- wynd
- amind
- animalkind
- assigned
- brined
- crined
- declined
- dined
- enshrined
- entwined
- fined
- humankind
- mined
- misaligned
- pined
- re-signed
- realigned
- reassigned
- redefined
- redesigned
- remind
- resigned
- rined
- shined
- twined
Questions about presence of mind
- What does presence of mind mean?
- Presence of mind means focused alertness, good sense, quick-thinking resourcefulness, or stability of feeling and thought, especially in spite of circumstances which are distracting, stressful, or otherwise challenging.
- What is presence of mind in Tamil?
- Presence of mind in Tamil is மன முன்னிலை. See Presence of mind meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use presence of mind in a sentence?
- [S]he snatched a pistol from the wall, on which some fire-arms hung, and while she screamed to her father to awake, had the presence of mind to present it at the intruder.
- What part of speech is presence of mind?
- Presence of mind is a noun.
- How do you pronounce presence of mind?
- Presence of mind is pronounced /ˌpɹɛzn̩s əv ˈmaɪnd/ (UK).
Words near presence of mind in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: presence of mind (page history and authors); presence of mind (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); presence of mind (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); presence of mind (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); प्रतिभा (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). 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-presence of mind.oga.
Cite this entry: “presence of mind.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/presence_of_mind. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.