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conscience
[ kon-shuhns ]
noun
- the inner sense of what is right or wrong in one's conduct or motives, impelling one toward right action:
to follow the dictates of conscience.
- the complex of ethical and moral principles that controls or inhibits the actions or thoughts of an individual.
- an inhibiting sense of what is prudent:
I'd eat another piece of pie but my conscience would bother me.
- Obsolete. consciousness; self-knowledge.
- Obsolete. strict and reverential observance.
conscience
/ ˈɒʃəԲ /
noun
- the sense of right and wrong that governs a person's thoughts and actions
- regulation of one's actions in conformity to this sense
- a supposed universal faculty of moral insight
- conscientiousness; diligence
- a feeling of guilt or anxiety
he has a conscience about his unkind action
- obsolete.consciousness
- in conscience or in all conscience
- with regard to truth and justice
- certainly
- on one's consciencecausing feelings of guilt or remorse
Derived Forms
- ˈDzԲԳ, adjective
Other Word Forms
- DzsԳ· adjective
- DzsԳ··ly adverb
- DzsԳ··ness noun
- ܲ·DzsԳ noun
Word History and Origins
Origin of conscience1
Word History and Origins
Origin of conscience1
Idioms and Phrases
- have something on one's conscience, to feel guilty about something, as an act that one considers wrong:
She behaves as if she had something on her conscience.
- in all conscience, Also in conscience.
- in all reason and fairness.
More idioms and phrases containing conscience
see have a clear conscience ; in conscience .Example Sentences
At this point, what started as a throwaway joke has grown into something vaguely earnest — too big to fail and too enmeshed in the neighborhood to be abandoned in good conscience.
He grows to resent how much is being asked of him and can’t shake the toll that risking innocent lives takes on his conscience.
He called on gynaecologists to invoke their consciences and sent a message to Ireland - as it held a referendum on the subject - begging people there to protect the vulnerable.
During "cordial talks" on Saturday, the parties expressed satisfaction with "good existing bilateral relations" and a "common commitment to protect the right to freedom of religion and conscience", the Vatican said in a statement.
I discovered is that while religion may not be the opiate of the masses, as Karl Marx famously wrote, this app is a sedative to dull the consciences of MAGA.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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