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conscience

conscience

632 4.6
An inner feeling that tells you what is right or wrong and makes you feel guilty
  • noun
  • /ˈkɒnʃəns/
translation icon : conciencia
  • You must have a guilty conscience.
  • freedom of conscience
  • good conscience
  • bad conscience

Hagel here is saying conscience can say screw you.

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Examples

  • It's a shock to the conscience what's happening on a vast scale.

  • His conscience wouldn't allow him to cheat on the exam, no matter how badly he wanted to pass.

  • And I will not, in good conscience, let you leave this farm again.

  • Oh, let my conscience be my guide.

  • But I will ask you to search your own conscience.

  • The person has no conscience whatsoever.

  • What is at stake with conscience is one's soul, which is ultimately God's and not one's own.

    Academic text (1999)
  • And we're like, I can't in good conscience continue to believe that that's the case.

  • Even when following our consciences, as we are morally bound to do, we can go wrong.

    Academic text (2008)
  • Integration or not, traditional healers remain the very embodiment of the conscience of their communities.

    Academic text (1999)

Synonyms

compunction
vsconscience
  • Formal
10 9.6

A feeling of guilt that stops you from doing something bad or follows it

serves also as a guiding sense before action, not only guilt afterwards
7 3.8

An understanding of what is right and wrong that guides a person's actions

is broader, also serving as an inner judge that causes guilt
moral sense
vsconscience
4 4.6

A feeling that helps you know right from wrong and do the right thing

is more than ability, also causing guilt when one misbehaves
voice of conscience
vsconscience
1 6.3

An inner feeling that tells you if something is right or wrong

also includes the feeling of guilt after a wrong action
scruples
vsconscience
7.6

Feelings that make you hesitate because something seems wrong

acts as an inner guide rather than mere hesitation before acting
wee small voice
vsconscience
  • UK
9.1

A quiet inner feeling that tells you when something is wrong

is the general inner guiding sense, not only a faint or quiet form

Idioms

To make someone feel guilty about something they did or failed to do

Compounds

A feeling of being sorry and worried after doing something wrong

An inner feeling that tells you if something is right or wrong

Money given to make up for past wrongs and ease guilt

How Strong

conscience
632 4.6

Surface Forms

conscience singular
consciences plural

Etymology

Conscience comes from the Latin parts con- ('with') and scire ('to know') and is from the same root as science, so you can think of it as 'knowing with yourself'. That's why your conscience is like an inner voice or guide that tells you if something you did was right or wrong.