con·science

(kŏn′shəns)

a. An awareness of morality in regard to one's behavior; a sense of right and wrong that urges one to act morally: Let your conscience be your guide.

b. A source of moral or ethical judgment or pronouncement: a document that serves as the nation's conscience.

c. Conformity to one's own sense of right conduct: a person of unflagging conscience.

2. The part of the superego in psychoanalysis that judges the ethical nature of one's actions and thoughts and then transmits such determinations to the ego for consideration.

3. Obsolete Consciousness or awareness of something.

Idioms:

in (all good) conscience

In all fairness; by any reasonable standard.

on (one's) conscience

Causing one to feel guilty or uneasy.

[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.]

con′science·less adj.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adj.

conscienceless - lacking a conscience; "a conscienceless villain"; "brash, unprincipled, and conscienceless"; "an unconscionable liar"

unconscionable

unconscientious - not conscientious;

conscienceless

adjective

Lacking scruples or principles:

ruthless, unconscionable, unethical, unprincipled, unscrupulous.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

He is a subtle, conscienceless Italian, who though he very likely dreams of crime, dares not commit it; and unlike Cromwell, who disposes of both Houses, Mazarin has had the queen to support him in his struggle with the parliament."

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No one but a nation of pirates, of ferocious and conscienceless huns, could have inaugurated such a campaign."

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The ocean has the conscienceless temper of a savage autocrat spoiled by much adulation.

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How far she developed and illustrated that conscienceless and austere doctrine to the girl- friends, who were mere transient shadows to her husband, I could not tell.

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even battered, brazen, beautiful, conscienceless, heartless, Mrs.

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The Wall Street Journal's disturbing July 31 report of an alleged secret mass burial of at least a thousand Nigerian soldiers who were murdered by Boko Haram terrorists has, once again, brought to the fore the conscienceless villainy and duplicity of the Buhari regime and its service chiefs who have overstayed their statutorily mandated length of service by several years/months.

Boko Haram War And Buhari Regime's Duplicity

'August 1 would be remembered as the black day in the democratic history of Pakistan not because that a no-confidence motion against chairman Senate remained unsuccessful,' he said added; 'But because that some coward and conscienceless senators first voted in favour of the motion by rising from their seats but they either spoiled their votes or voted against the motion through secret balloting while ignoring their parties' direction.'

Malik orders probe into fake lists of defecting senators

357 (1907), Hodges filed suit against a corporation and made various allegations in his complaint about the corporation's president, Myers, including that Myers "was and is held as a tricky, dishonorable, unscrupulous and conscienceless man.doing everything in his power to beat [Mr.

Litigation Privilege Immunity: For Presuit Communications, It's Not Absolute

Priests have been killed before; Philippine history is witness to the sacrifice of Filipino and foreign priests who have been targeted because their faith and their good works troubled conscienceless men.

They shoot priests, don't they?

It is hard to identify with the conscienceless rationalizations of someone who murders multiple times for amusement--or lunch.

Where Is a Bad Guy When v You Really Need One? Antagonists and Master Criminals

Days earlier, another youth had fallen prey to equally conscienceless villains.

The Human Beasts

One issue with the imported stents was also that in certain cases it also emerged that substandard stents were imported and inserted in patients putting their life at risk just to pocket more money by the conscienceless people.

Local production of stents