awareness
- 1Knowledge or perception that something exists, or recognition of a particular situation or fact.
Growing awareness of climate change has shifted public policy.
His awareness of the danger came too late for him to react.
Similarknowledge, understanding, recognition, realization, consciousness
Oppositeignorance, unawareness
Note
Built from aware + -ness, the noun keeps the adjective's preposition: you are aware of a danger, and you have an awareness of it. Its usual companions are words of change, as in raise awareness of a topic or a growing awareness of climate change. It is usually uncountable, but it takes an article when one particular awareness is meant: an awareness of one idea fosters an awareness of another.
- 2A level of consciousness at which incoming sense data can be noticed and verified by the observer.
The anesthesiologist monitored the patient's awareness throughout the procedure.
Meditation can heighten awareness of bodily sensations that usually go unnoticed.
Similarconsciousness, perception
Oppositeunconsciousness
Note
Here awareness has no object. It is the condition of being awake to the senses at all, the point reached when someone passes from sleep to full awareness. Words of degree suit it, such as full or heightened, because it comes in levels. Awareness of something always points at a topic or fact, but this one stands alone, and that bare use is the quickest way to tell them apart.
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Origin
Formed from the adjective "aware" combined with the suffix "-ness."