conscientiousness.

A tendency to act carefully, reliably and with attention to responsibilities or standards.

Use it for

Words that belong together

• professional conscientiousness
• trait conscientiousness

On the page

His conscientiousness appeared in the checks he completed when nobody was watching.

The research treated conscientiousness as a dimension rather than a measure of a person’s moral worth.

Usage notes

Primary category: psychology / character / human behavior. Forms: Usually uncountable. Legacy lexical fields mirror sense 1 only. Use numbered sense fields for all meanings. Established modern English lexical item. No separate regional spelling or grammatical inflection entry. Writing functions: characterization, motivation, interpersonal behavior, self-evaluation. Disciplines: psychology, human behavior, character writing. Commonness: moderately common.