Dictionary.com

pensive

[ pen-siv ]
/ ˈpɛn sɪv /
SEE SYNONYMS FOR pensive ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

dreamily or wistfully thoughtful: a pensive mood.
expressing or revealing thoughtfulness, usually marked by some sadness: a pensive adagio.

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Origin of pensive

1325–75; <French (feminine); replacing Middle English pensif<Middle French (masculine), derivative of penser to think <Latin pēnsāre to weigh, consider, derivative of pēnsus, past participle of pendere.See pension, -ive

synonym study for pensive

1. 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.

OTHER WORDS FROM pensive

Words nearby pensive

pensioner, pension fund, pension mortgage, pension off, pension plan, pensive, penstemon, penstock, pent, penta-, pentachloronitrobenzene
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Words related to pensive

sober, dreamy, thoughtful, contemplative, wistful, absorbed, abstracted, attentive, grave, musing, preoccupied, reflective, serious, speculative, thinking, withdrawn, cogitative, ruminative, pondering, reflecting

Example sentences from the Web for pensive

British Dictionary definitions for pensive

pensive
/ (ˈpɛnsɪv) /

adjective

deeply or seriously thoughtful, often with a tinge of sadness
expressing or suggesting pensiveness

Derived forms of pensive

pensively, adverbpensiveness, noun

Word Origin for pensive

C14: from Old French pensif, from penser to think, from Latin pensāre to consider; compare pension 1
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012