conscience
moral sense
[U] Uncountable
This term describes the internal moral compass that triggers feelings of guilt or righteousness. It is often personified as a voice or a weight, creating a psychological tension between one's actions and their personal ethical standards. While morality refers to a system of rules, this word focuses on the individual's subjective emotional response to those rules.
Grammatically, this noun is treated as a countable noun, though it is frequently used in the singular to refer to the general faculty of moral judgment. When referring to the specific state of one's moral standing, it is common to see it paired with adjectives like clear, guilty, or uneasy.
Refers to the abstract internal moral faculty that cannot be counted as individual units.