Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

In Butler’s portrait, which Gray took in the 1990s, the influential writer looks contemplatively off into the distance — whether near or far, one can’t be sure.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 1, 2025

Late at night after a full 15-hour day shooting, Leigh Whannell is sitting in a plastic folding chair in the car park of Sydney’s Fox Studios looking contemplatively at sound stage two.

From The Guardian • Feb. 16, 2020

When we arrive, we have this setting to ourselves save for a lone dude sitting contemplatively on a rock.

From Washington Post • Nov. 30, 2017

Men and women, most of them elderly, sat contemplatively over coffees they rarely touched.

From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 3, 2015

Men, irrigating in the silver fields, paused, leaning contemplatively on their shovel handles, to listen.

From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols