- [countable, uncountable] the part of your mind that tells you whether your actions are right or wrong
- to have a clear/guilty conscience (= to feel that you have done right/wrong)
- This is a matter of individual conscience (= everyone must make their own judgement about it).
- He won't let it trouble his conscience.
Extra ExamplesTopics Personal qualitiesc1- I salve my conscience by recycling as much as possible.
- At the end of each day, examine your conscience.
- He felt his conscience telling him to apologize.
- I wrestled with my conscience all night long.
- Her conscience pricked her every time she thought of how cruel she had been to Kirby.
- His conscience was bothering him a little.
- How can you do your job with a clean conscience?
- I have a clear conscience.
- I have only ever followed my conscience.
- It should be a matter of individual conscience.
- It's important to let your conscience guide your decisions.
- My conscience dictates that I resign.
- She refused to listen to the voice of conscience.
- To clear my conscience and make it up to you, I'd like to take you out to dinner.
- a bill which has shocked the conscience of every middle-class community
- a dying man with a guilty conscience
- a government with no social conscience
- consumers with an environmental conscience
- the collective conscience of American business
- His decision appears to have been an act of conscience.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- clean
- clear
- easy
- …
- have
- appease
- assuage
- …
- guide somebody/something
- tell somebody something
- bother somebody
- …
- on your conscience
- an act of conscience
- an attack of conscience
- a crisis of conscience
- …
- [uncountable, countable] a guilty feeling about something you have done or failed to do
- She was seized by a sudden pang of conscience.
- I have a terrible conscience about it.
Extra Examples- He had no conscience about taking his brother's money.
- Best came forward because of an attack of conscience.
- I had a sudden pang of conscience that I really ought to tell the truth.
- We assuaged our conscience by telling ourselves that they would be worse off without us.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- clean
- clear
- easy
- …
- have
- appease
- assuage
- …
- guide somebody/something
- tell somebody something
- bother somebody
- …
- on your conscience
- an act of conscience
- an attack of conscience
- a crisis of conscience
- …
- [uncountable] the fact of behaving in a way that you feel is right even though this may cause problems
- freedom of conscience (= the freedom to do what you believe to be right)
- Emilia is the voice of conscience in the play.
Extra Examples- How could people of conscience allow this to happen?
- individual rights and rights of conscience on our campuses of higher education
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- clean
- clear
- easy
- …
- have
- appease
- assuage
- …
- guide somebody/something
- tell somebody something
- bother somebody
- …
- on your conscience
- an act of conscience
- an attack of conscience
- a crisis of conscience
- …
Word OriginMiddle English (also in the sense ‘inner thoughts or knowledge’): via Old French from Latin conscientia, from conscient- ‘being privy to’, from the verb conscire, from con- ‘with’ + scire ‘know’.
Idioms
See conscience in the Oxford Advanced American DictionarySee conscience in the Oxford Learner's Dictionary of Academic Englishin (all/good) conscience
- (formal) believing your actions to be fair synonym honestly
- We cannot in all conscience refuse to help.
on your conscience
- making you feel guilty for doing or failing to do something
- I'll write and apologize. I've had it on my conscience for weeks.
- It’s still on my conscience that I didn’t warn him in time.
Extra ExamplesTopics Feelingsc2- It was on his conscience that he hadn't called her.
- I'm sure she has something on her conscience.
prick your conscience | your conscience pricks you
- to make you feel guilty about something; to feel guilty about something
- Her conscience pricked her as she lied to her sister.
Check pronunciation:
conscience