Meaning & use
cognizant
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Meaning
adjectivecomparableformal
Fully aware of a fact, risk or situation, especially one that matters for what you do.
Grammar: Almost always followed by of: cognizant of the risks.
Patterns
- cognizant of something
- cognizant that something
The board is cognizant of the concerns raised by local residents.
Drivers should be cognizant of road conditions during winter.
She was fully cognizant that her decision would upset some colleagues.
Word forms
| comparative | more cognizant |
|---|---|
| superlative | most cognizant |
Common combinations
- cognizant of the fact
- We are cognizant of the fact that budgets are tight.
- fully cognizant
- He was fully cognizant of the dangers.
- remain cognizant
- Managers must remain cognizant of changing rules.
- become cognizant
- Students became cognizant of how much time they wasted online.
- cognizant of the risks
- Investors should be cognizant of the risks.
Synonyms and how they differ
- aware
- Aware is the everyday word and works in nearly any situation, while cognizant sounds formal and official.
- conscious
- Conscious often stresses deliberate attention to something, but cognizant stresses knowing the facts.
- mindful
- Mindful adds the idea of keeping something in your thoughts as you act, which cognizant need not include.
- informed
- Informed means having been given information, whereas cognizant says you actually understand the matter.
Opposites
Word family
- cognizance noun
- awareness or knowledge, as in take cognizance of
- cognition noun
- the mental process of knowing and understanding
- cognitive adjective
- relating to thinking and understanding
- recognize verb
- to identify something you have seen before
Commonly confused: cognizant or recognizant?
cognizant vs recognizant
Recognizant is not a standard word; use cognizant, or aware in everyday speech.
Practice
The committee is cognizant ___ the difficulties facing small farmers.
Choose one answer.
Cognizant is followed by of. The other prepositions are sometimes used with aware or familiar but do not fit cognizant.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “cognizant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.