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metacognition

noun/ˌmɛtəkɒɡˈnɪʃən/

C2CEFR level
75/100Rarity: rare
TechnicalRegister

Awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

Good students develop the metacognition to notice when they have merely memorised rather than understood.

Similar: self-monitoring, reflective awareness

Origin: Greek 'meta' beyond + Latin 'cognitio' knowledge.

Topic: cognition in General English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More general words: cognition