conscience

Borrowed 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”).

• IPA^(key): /kɒnʃəns/

• Audio (US)

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conscience (countable and uncountable, plural consciences)

1. The moral sense of right and wrong, chiefly as it affects one's own behaviour.

   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.

   • 1951, Isaac Asimov, Foundation (1974 Panther Books Ltd publication), part V: “The Merchant Princes”, chapter 14, page 175, ¶ 7

     [“]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:

     ‘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) 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.
   • 1603, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, act 3, scene 1,

     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.

• Adjectives often used with "conscience": good, bad, guilty. A good conscience is one free from guilt, a bad conscience the opposite.
• Phrases: To make conscience of, To make a matter of conscience, to act according to the dictates of conscience concerning (any matter), or to scruple to act contrary to its dictates.

• conscientious
• conscientiously
• conscientiousness
• conscionable
• consciousness

• synteresis

• conscience in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• conscience in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

From Old French conscience, borrowed 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”).

• IPA^(key): /kɔ̃.sjɑ̃s/

• Audio (France, Paris)

  (file)

• Homophone: consciences
• Hyphenation: con‧science

conscience f (plural consciences)

1. conscience
2. consciousness

• inconscience

• consciencieux

• conscient
• science

• “conscience” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

• cunscience (Anglo-Norman)

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

conscience 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

• English: conscience
• French: conscience