pensive

American  

[pen-siv] / ˈpɛn sɪv /

adjective

1. dreamily or wistfully thoughtful.

   a pensive mood.

   Antonyms:

   thoughtless

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

   a pensive adagio.

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pensive British  

/ ˈpɛnsɪv /

adjective

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

2. expressing or suggesting pensiveness

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Related Words

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 Word Forms

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

Etymology

Origin of pensive

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

Example Sentences

McCarthy readily confesses he’s “very much a loner,” quiet and pensive — and yet he craves attachment.

From Los Angeles Times

Among the U.S. servicemembers massed near the berm between Saudi Arabia and Iraq was Mark Hertling, a pensive Army major on his first combat deployment.

From The Wall Street Journal

The assistant searched for herself in one of the pictures, then scanned the faces, pensive.

From Barron's

Or it could simply indicate that collectors feel safer splurging on a household-name artist like Rembrandt, a Renaissance man famed for his pensive, realistic self-portraits in earthen hues.

From The Wall Street Journal

A few blocks inland, the vibes are less pensive, more effusive at the Fleuria — Los Angeles’ first romance book truck.

From Los Angeles Times

Related Words

• contemplative
• dreamy
• sober
• thoughtful
• wistful