Basic Details
Word: Conscious
Part of Speech: Adjective
Meaning: Awake and aware of what is happening around you; also, knowing about something, or done on purpose.
Synonyms: aware, awake, alert, deliberate
Antonyms: unconscious, unaware, unintentional
Sounds like: conscience (the inner sense that tells you what is right and wrong)
How to Spell Conscious
Syllables: con - scious
Tricky part: The sh sound is spelt sci, so the s and the c sit side by side. Many students drop one of them and write concious or consious.
Watch out for: consious, conscous, conshious
Memory tip: Whisper it as con-skee-us while you write. Saying the hidden k sound reminds your hand to put both the s and the c in place.
Usage Examples
Example 1: The boxer was still conscious when the doctors reached him.
Example 2: Neel is very conscious of how much sugar he eats.
Example 3: Switching off the fan when you leave the room is a conscious choice to save power.
Fun Fact
Doctors measure how conscious an injured person is with the Glasgow Coma Scale, which gives a score from 3 to 15 by checking the eyes, speech and movement.
Practise the CREST Way
Spell-o-Spell
Three of these words are spelt correctly. Choose the meaning of the misspelt word:
1. oblivious 2. drowsy 3. consious 4. vigilant
a) sleepy and only half awake
b) awake and aware
c) watching carefully for danger
d) not noticing what is happening
Show answer
b) awake and aware. Oblivious, vigilant and drowsy are all correct; conscious needs sci, so consious is missing its c.
Word Connection
Choose the synonym of the word conscious as used in the sentence:
Riya was conscious of the whole class watching her as she walked up to the stage.
a) afraid
b) tired
c) proud
d) aware
Show answer
d) aware. Here conscious means she knew and felt the eyes on her, which is being aware.
Mingle-Mangle
Unjumble the letters in the sentence to form a meaningful word:
Are you sincouocs that you hum whenever you work on a puzzle?
a) conscious
b) continuous
c) cautious
d) contagious
Show answer
a) conscious. Two c's and two s's are in the letters; cautious has only one of each, and contagious and continuous need a t.
Multiple Choice Questions
1. A conscious decision is one that is ____.
a) made on purpose
b) made by mistake
c) made in a dream
d) made by a robot
Show answer
a) made on purpose
2. Which word means 'not knowing or noticing something'?
a) unkind
b) unwell
c) unaware
d) unfair
Show answer
c) unaware
