self-consciousness
/ˌsɛlfˈkɑnʃəsnəs/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: 4.10 in modern English
24
Scrabble Score
17
Letters
6
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "[A]nd that one great and all-important occasion and provocative of these beliefs was actually the rise of self-consciousness — that is, the coming of the mind to a more or less distinct awareness of itself and of its own operation, and the consequent development and growth of Individualism, and of the Self-centred attitude in human thought and action."
- "Adam Gopnik has, by many accounts, including his own, a lovely life. A longtime staff writer for the New Yorker and bestselling author, Gopnik lives in Manhattan with his wife, Martha, a film-maker, and their two children, and he moves in the kind of circles that allow him to drop casual lines into conversation such as: “As John Updike once said to me …”, although he has the nervy Jewish self-consciousness to follow that with “… if you’ll forgive the namedrop.”"
Etymology
From self- + consciousness.
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌsɛlfˈkɑnʃəsnəs/