Meaning & use
crisis of conscience
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A period of deep worry when you doubt whether what you are doing is morally right.
Grammar: Countable: you can have a crisis of conscience, or several crises of conscience.
Patterns
- have a crisis of conscience
- a crisis of conscience about/over something
- suffer a crisis of conscience
After signing the contract, she had a crisis of conscience and told her boss she could not go through with it.
The doctor's crisis of conscience began when he realized the drug was being tested on people who had not agreed to it.
Many reporters face a crisis of conscience when a story will hurt the family of the person involved.
nouncountable
A moment when a group or organization suddenly questions whether its actions are morally acceptable.
Grammar: Often used with a singular verb: the company's crisis of conscience was.
Patterns
- a crisis of conscience over something
- trigger a crisis of conscience
The bank's crisis of conscience over its loans to the arms industry led to a public review.
The team went through a crisis of conscience after the cheating scandal became known.
Word forms
| plural | crises of conscience |
|---|
Common combinations
- have a crisis of conscience
- He had a crisis of conscience the night before the exam and decided not to use the stolen answers.
- a crisis of conscience about something
- She is having a crisis of conscience about leaving her sick father alone.
- suffer a crisis of conscience
- He suffered a crisis of conscience after taking money he knew was not his.
- a moral crisis of conscience
- The novel describes a soldier's moral crisis of conscience during the war.
- resolve a crisis of conscience
- Talking to her sister helped her resolve her crisis of conscience.
Synonyms and how they differ
- moral dilemma
- A moral dilemma is a situation where you must choose between two options that both seem wrong; a crisis of conscience is the painful doubt you feel about your own conduct.
- guilt
- Guilt is the general feeling of having done wrong; a crisis of conscience is a more focused, often dramatic period of doubt about a particular decision.
- scruple
- A scruple is a small doubt about whether something is right; a crisis of conscience is much stronger and lasts longer.
Word family
- conscientious adjective
- Careful to do what is right and to do your work well.
- conscience noun
- The inner sense that tells you whether your actions are right or wrong.
Commonly confused: crisis of conscience or conscious? crisis of conscience or consciousness?
crisis of conscience vs conscious
Conscious means awake or aware; conscience is the inner sense of right and wrong. A crisis of conscience is about morality, not about being awake.
crisis of conscience vs consciousness
Consciousness is the state of being awake or aware; a crisis of conscience is a moral struggle.
Practice
Which sentence uses "crisis of conscience" correctly?
Choose one answer.
A crisis of conscience is a moral struggle, so returning the wallet fits. The other options describe sleep, forgetting, or winning, which have nothing to do with moral doubt.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “crisis of conscience”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.