subconscious

1 of 2

adjective

sub·​con·​scious ˌsəb-ˈkän(t)-shəs How to pronounce subconscious (audio)
ˈsəb-
: existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness
a subconscious motive
subconsciousness noun

subconscious

2 of 2

noun

: the mental activities just below the threshold of consciousness

Examples of subconscious in a Sentence

Noun A person's behavior can be influenced by urges that exist only in the subconscious. Those feelings had been hidden in her subconscious.
Recent Examples on the Web
Adjective
Crowd Rewards Grammys Performance of 'Turn the Lights Back on' with Standing Ovation His subconscious might not only spout moments of genius through his arm, but in his dreams as well. Jenna Wang, Peoplemag, 14 Mar. 2024 The decision felt almost subconscious, disturbingly so. Tribune News Service, The Mercury News, 7 Mar. 2024 The subconscious by definition is sub, below, your conscious awareness. Cmo, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024 But then beneath that, there are about 100 other things going on, often subconscious or beneath the surface. Georg Szalai, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 Feb. 2024 Tips can reveal hidden values or the rumblings of the subconscious. Zach Helfand, The New Yorker, 25 Dec. 2023 It’s engineered as an unsettling agent, a means to carry moral weight from the screen to the audience on a level that approaches the subconscious. Alissa Wilkinson, New York Times, 3 Mar. 2024 Their attraction—sometimes subconscious, but quite often stated flatly—was born of fear that America was slipping away from them, as immigrants poured into the country and mass democracy took hold. Franklin Foer, The Atlantic, 1 Mar. 2024 Matlins: How does a marketer tap into a subconscious need? Cmo, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2024
Noun
Your subconscious erupts forth with Uranus stationing direct. USA TODAY, 27 Jan. 2024 Hutcherson is compelling as a man trying desperately to cling to his last spark of hope, replaying the day his baby brother was kidnapped to search his own subconscious for clues. Jen Yamato, Los Angeles Times, 27 Oct. 2023 An evolutionary biology prof who keeps threatening to write the science book that will rock the academic world, the remarkably unremarkable family man would appear to be the last person to crash the subconscious of those unknown to him. Michael Rechtshaffen, The Hollywood Reporter, 10 Sep. 2023 By the Reagan ’80s and the Clinton ’90s, as economic prosperity helped cloister Middle America from the tragic fallout of epidemics like AIDS and crack, erotic thrillers from Body Heat to Cruising needled the collective subconscious about infidelity, queerness, female empowerment. Time, 11 Aug. 2023 The Red Door pops up in the new film, again via a now-teenage Dalton’s drawings, after his art teacher (Succession’s Hiam Abbass) encourages him to dig into his subconscious for inspiration. Shannon Carlin, Time, 7 July 2023 The collections have been the soul and backbone of LACMA and would be the envy of most museums, but the impulse behind the architectural effort, the unstated subconscious of the project, was more fundamentally to sensationalize the design into a spectacle. Joseph Giovannini, The New York Review of Books, 2 Oct. 2020 These jaunts down memory lane are narrated by Bea’s omniscient subconscious in voiceover. Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 12 Sep. 2022 Through a series of unconnected conversations with unrelated people on Zoom, my 14-year-old boarding-school love arose from my subconscious. Kim O'Hara, Los Angeles Times, 3 Feb. 2023

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'subconscious.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

Adjective

circa 1834, in the meaning defined above

Noun

1878, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of subconscious was circa 1834

Dictionary Entries Near subconscious

Cite this Entry

“Subconscious.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/subconscious. Accessed 19 Mar. 2024.

Kids Definition

subconscious

1 of 2 adjective
sub·​con·​scious ˌsəb-ˈkän-chəs How to pronounce subconscious (audio)
ˈsəb-
: existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness
a subconscious motive
subconsciously adverb

subconscious

2 of 2 noun
: the mental activities just below the limit of consciousness

Medical Definition

subconscious

1 of 2 adjective
sub·​con·​scious ˌsəb-ˈkän-chəs, ˈsəb- How to pronounce subconscious (audio)
1
: existing in the mind but not immediately available to consciousness : affecting thought, feeling, and behavior without entering awareness
subconscious motives
a subconscious reflex
2
: imperfectly conscious : partially but not fully aware
the persistence of subconscious dream activity for several minutes after wakingPsychological Abstracts
subconsciously adverb
subconsciousness noun

subconscious

2 of 2 noun
: the mental activities just below the threshold of consciousness
also : the aspect of the mind concerned with such activities compare unconscious
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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