conscience

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From Middle English conscience, from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”), from com- (“together”) + scire (“to know”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.ʃəns/, /ˈkɒn.tʃəns/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.ʃəns/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)

1. 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.

   • 1949, Albert Einstein, as quoted by Virgil Henshaw in Albert Einstein: Philosopher Scientist,

     Never do anything against conscience, even if the state demands it.

   • 1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 159:

     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.

   • 1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation, Panther Books Ltd, published 1974, part V: The Merchant Princes, chapter 14, page 175:

     [“]Twer is not a friend of mine testifying against me reluctantly and for conscience’ sake, as the prosecution would have you believe. He is a spy, performing his paid job.[”]

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 18, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC:

     ‘Then the father has a great fight with his terrible conscience,’ said Munday with granite seriousness. ‘Should he make a row with the police […] ? Or should he say nothing about it and condone brutality for fear of appearing in the newspapers?

2. (chiefly fiction, narratology) 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.
3. (obsolete) Consciousness; thinking; awareness, especially self-awareness.
   • 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 Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene i]:

     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.

• conscientious
• conscientiously
• conscientiousness
• conscionable
• consciousness

• synteresis

• “conscience”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “conscience”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Inherited from Old French conscience, borrowed from Latin cōnscientia (“knowledge within oneself”), from consciens, present participle of conscire (“to know, to be conscious (of wrong)”).

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sjɑ̃s/

• Audio (Paris):

  (file)

• Homophone: consciences
• Hyphenation: con‧science

conscience f (plural consciences)

1. conscience
2. consciousness

• inconscience

• conscient
• science

• “conscience”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• consience, conciens

Borrowed from Old French conscience, from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”).

conscience (plural consciences)

1. conscience

• English: conscience
• Yola: coshes, coshe, cosh
• → Irish: coinsias

• “conscience, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• cunscience (Anglo-Norman)

Borrowed from Latin conscientia (“knowledge within oneself”).

conscience oblique singular, f (oblique plural consciences, nominative singular conscience, nominative plural consciences)

1. conscience

   la conscience ne remort point a ces riches homme

   the conscience doesn't bite these rich men

• French: conscience
• → Middle English: conscience, consience, conciens
  • English: conscience
  • Yola: coshes, coshe, cosh
  • → Irish: coinsias