pensive

[pen-siv]

adjective

1. dreamily or wistfully thoughtful.

   a pensive mood.

   Antonyms: thoughtless

2. expressing or revealing thoughtfulness, usually marked by some sadness.

   a pensive adagio.

pensive

/ ˈpɛnsɪv /

adjective

1. deeply or seriously thoughtful, often with a tinge of sadness

2. expressing or suggesting pensiveness

Other Word Forms

• pensively adverb
• pensiveness noun
• overpensive adjective
• overpensively adverb
• overpensiveness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of pensive¹

First recorded in 1325–75; from French (feminine); replacing Middle English pensif, from Middle French (masculine), from pens(er) “to think” (from Latin pēnsāre “to consider, weigh,” literally, “to hang repeatedly,” from pendere “to cause to hang, consider, weigh”) + -if -ive

Word History and Origins

Origin of pensive¹

C14: from Old French pensif, from penser to think, from Latin pensāre to consider; compare _pension ¹

Synonym Study

Pensive , meditative , reflective suggest quiet modes of apparent or real thought. Pensive , the weakest of the three, suggests dreaminess or wistfulness, and may involve little or no thought to any purpose: a pensive, faraway look. Meditative involves thinking of certain facts or phenomena, perhaps in the religious sense of “contemplation,” without necessarily having a goal of complete understanding or of action: meditative but unjudicial. Reflective has a strong implication of orderly, perhaps analytic, processes of thought, usually with a definite goal of understanding: a careful and reflective critic.

Example Sentences

And here's the thing: while they are all winners, they had the demeanour of those with pensive worry.

From BBC

“Your Estragon is funny, lonely, pensive, philosophical and shares your ability to sleep anywhere, at any time,” she wrote on Instagram, referencing Reeves’ character.

From Los Angeles Times

But when I bump into another former Conservative cabinet minister they are more pensive at what they fear the defection says about the Tories.

From BBC

Later, on the pensive Slow Jam, he stares old age in the face and wonders how "you've gone from all you that could be to all that you once were".

From BBC

All this leaves the prime minister and those around him humbled, bruised, reflective, pensive.

From BBC

Related Words

• contemplative 
• dreamy 
• sober 
• thoughtful 
• wistful