Conscience definitions and example sentences on Wordnik

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Definitions (29)

American Heritage Dictionary (6)

noun The awareness of a moral or ethical aspect to one's conduct together with the urge to prefer right over wrong: Let your conscience be your guide.
noun A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement: a document that serves as the nation's conscience.
noun Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct: a person of unflagging conscience.

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Century Dictionary (19)

Consciousness; knowledge. [Obsolete or rare.] Let … thy former facts Not fall in mention, but to urge new acts. Conscience of them provoke thee on to more. B. Jonson, Catiline, i. 1. The same passion [for glory] may proceed not from any conscience of our own actions, but from fame and trust of others, whereby one may think well of himself, and yet be deceived; and this is false glory. Hobbes, Works, IV. ix. The characteristic of the long medieval centuries, the conscience that war is justiflable only by law. Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 220.
Private or inward thoughts; real sentiments. By my troth, I will speak my conscience of the king: I think he would not wish himself anywhere but where he is. Shak., Hen. V., iv. 1.
The consciousness that the acts for which a person believes himself to be responsible do or do not conform to his ideal of right; the moral judgment of the individual applied to his own conduct, in distinction from his perception of right and wrong in the abstract, and in the conduct of others. It manifests itself in the feeling of obligation or duty, the moral imperative “I ought” or “I ought not”: hence the phrases the voice of conscience, the dictates of conscience, etc. Conscience that es called ynwitt [inwit]. Hampole, Prick of Conscience, I. 5428. My conscience hath a thousand several tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. Shak., Rich. III., v. 3. No way whatsoever that I shall walk in against the dictates of my conscience will ever bring me to the mansions of the blessed. Locke, 1st Letter concerning Toleration. Man, as conscious of his liberty to act, and of the law by which his actions ought to be regulated, recognizes his personal accountability, and calls himself before the internal tribunal which we denominate conscience. Here he is either acquitted or condemned. The acquittal is connected with a peculiar feeling of pleasurable exultation, as the condemnation with a peculiar feeling of painful humiliation—remorse. Sir W. Hamilton.

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But Luther said; “Unless I be convinced by Scripture and reason, I neither can nor dare retract anything for my conscience is a captive to God's Word, and it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience,” and a great multitude of men in Germany, France, Switzerland, and Great Britain stood beside Luther and protested that they were amenable to the Lord alone, and that they could do nothing against conscience. — Personal Recollections of Pardee Butler
Are you saying that to disassociating yourself from vitriolic statements because you have a conscience is attacking a person? — The Full Feed from HuffingtonPost.com
Surviving this warrior with a heart and watchful citizen with a conscience is his wife, — Wake Up From Your Slumber - The Truth Will Set You Free
Moral theologians refer to this as "invincible ignorance," that is, a conscience which is in error about the truth. — Latest Articles
But apparently my conscience is as deeply embedded in my libido as my reality check. — The Blowfish Blog

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affection · judgment · imagination · morality · feeling · justice · pride · wisdom · soul · honor · honesty

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

American Heritage Dictionary (1)

Middle English, from Old French, from Latin cōnscientia, from cōnsciēns, cōnscient-, present participle of cōnscīre, to be conscious of : com-, intensive pref.; see com- + scīre, to know; see skei- in Indo-European roots.

Century Dictionary (1)

from Middle English conscience, concience, conciens, from Old French conscience, concience, French conscience = Provencal conciencia, cossiencia = Spanish consciencia, now conciencia = Portuguese consciencia = Italian conscienza, coscienza, from Latin conscientia, a joint knowledge, cognizance, consciousness, knowledge, conscience, from conscien(t-)s, present participle of conscire (little used), be conscious (of wrong), Late Latin know well, from com-, together, + scire, know: see science.

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