pensive
[ pen-siv ]
/ ˈpɛn sɪv /
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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
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.
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Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2021
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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, nounWord Origin for pensive
C14: from Old French pensif, from penser to think, from Latin pensāre to consider; compare pension 1
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