Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception; not conscious.
  • adjective Temporarily lacking consciousness.
  • adjective Occurring in the absence of conscious awareness or thought.
  • adjective Without conscious control; involuntary or unintended.
  • noun The division of the mind in psychoanalytic theory containing elements of psychic makeup, such as memories or repressed desires, that are not subject to conscious perception or control but that often affect conscious thoughts and behavior.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Not conscious.
  • Not conscious to one's self; not self-conscious; not knowing; not perceiving; unaware; hence, regardless; heedless: as, unconscious of guilt or error.
  • Not known or perceived as existing in one's self; not felt: as, unconscious generosity.
  • Not possessing consciousness; non-conscious.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Psychoanalysis) Usually the unconscious; that part of the mind in which mental processes occur that are not accesible to the awareness, but may significantly influence behavior.
  • adjective Not conscious; having no consciousness or power of mental perception; without cerebral appreciation; hence, not knowing or regarding; ignorant.
  • adjective Not known or apprehended by consciousness; resulting from neural activity of which a person is not aware.
  • adjective Having no knowledge by experience; -- followed by of.
  • adjective Unintentional.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Not awake.
  • adjective Without directed thought or awareness.
  • adjective sports engaged in skilled performance without conscious control.
  • noun psychology The unconscious mind

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective without conscious volition
  • adjective (followed by `of') not knowing or perceiving
  • adjective not conscious; lacking awareness and the capacity for sensory perception as if asleep or dead
  • noun that part of the mind wherein psychic activity takes place of which the person is unaware

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word unconscious.

Examples

  • Neurasthenia, stammering, aversions, kleptomania, certain cases of paralysis, are nothing but the result of unconscious autosuggestion, that is to say the result of the action of the _unconscious_ upon the physical and moral being.

    Maîtrise de soi-même par l'autosuggestion consciente. English Emile Cou�� 1891

  • I believe that denial and the choice to remain unconscious is evil.

    Think Progress » Report: Global Warming Pollution Has Doubled in 28 States Since 1960 2006

  • Kudos, Gary - you have a very honest unconscious (then again, our unconscious is always honest, ain't it ....)

    Nelson expresses support for using trigger on public insurance 2009

  • And of course the unconscious is at work when that happens, and you have to allow it to open up, to be found.

    Periodicals 2010

  • The other parts of the brain, including the right hemisphere, support emotional responses and what we refer to as the unconscious mind.

    When He's Married to Mom Kenneth M. Adams 2007

  • The other parts of the brain, including the right hemisphere, support emotional responses and what we refer to as the unconscious mind.

    When He's Married to Mom Kenneth M. Adams 2007

  • The other parts of the brain, including the right hemisphere, support emotional responses and what we refer to as the unconscious mind.

    When He's Married to Mom Kenneth M. Adams 2007

  • The other parts of the brain, including the right hemisphere, support emotional responses and what we refer to as the unconscious mind.

    When He's Married to Mom Kenneth M. Adams 2007

  • The lectures say that a child can take in everything, hold it but not absorb it in what they call the unconscious.

    The Master Colm Tóibín 2004

  • It helps what I call unconscious eating, that is, eating more calories than we're aware of.

    CNN Transcript Nov 29, 2002 2002

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.