Conscious, a.
Etymology: [L. conscius; con- + scire to know. See Conscience.]
1. Possessing the faculty of knowing one's own thoughts or mental operations. Some are thinking or conscious beings, or have a power of thought. I. Watts.
2. Possessing knowledge, whether by internal, conscious experience or by external observation; cognizant; aware; sensible. Her conscious heart imputed suspicion where none could have been felt. Hawthorne. The man who breathes most healthilly is least conscious of his own breathing. De Quincey.
3. Made the object of consciousness; known to one's self; as, conscious guilt. With conscious terrors vex me round. Milton.
Syn. -- Aware; apprised; sensible; felt; known.
Shades of meaning
One is aware of that which exists without him; he is conscious of the inner workings of his own mind. Sensible may be used in the exact sense of conscious, or it may partake of both the senses mentioned above. One may be sensible of his own or another's error; he is conscious only of his own. A person may feel assured or sure of something false or non-existent; what he is aware of, still more what he is conscious of, must be fact. Sensible has often a reference to the emotions where conscious might apply only to the intellect; to say a culprit is sensible of his degradation is more forcible than to say he is conscious of it.
Prepositions
On the stormy sea, man is conscious of the limitation of human power.