Relating to mental processes that occur below the level of conscious awareness but still influence behavior, thoughts, and feelings. As a noun, it refers to the part of the mind that operates automatically without deliberate attention.
From Latin prefix 'sub-' (under, below) and 'conscious' from Latin 'conscius' (knowing, aware). The term was coined in the late 19th century as psychology began studying mental processes outside conscious awareness. Popularized by Freud and early psychoanalysts, though the concept predates their formal theories.
Your subconscious mind processes about 11 million bits of information per second, while your conscious mind handles only about 40 - it's like having a supercomputer running in the background! Most of what we call 'intuition' or 'gut feelings' is actually our subconscious rapidly processing patterns and information that our conscious mind hasn't noticed yet.
Complete word intelligence in one call. Free tier — 50 lookups/day.