train of thought

Idioms  

1. A succession of connected ideas, a path of reasoning, as in You've interrupted my train of thought; now what was I saying? This idiom, which uses train in the sense of “an orderly sequence,” was first recorded in 1651, in philosopher Thomas Hobbes's Leviathan.

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Example Sentences

I swear I had another example, but I lost my train of thought.

From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 23, 2026

That moment when you suddenly can't remember the word for something really obvious, or you're mid-sentence and you lose your train of thought.

From BBC • Nov. 16, 2025

While talking about his sophomore album, “Kansas Anymore,” Pillsbury suddenly lost his train of thought and, through his phone’s camera, a panicked smile takes over his typically sarcastic composure.

From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 28, 2025

The key failing of Walz was not a lost train of thought here or there, or his obvious jitters and nerves at the debate’s outset.

From Slate • Oct. 2, 2024

Dawn was breaking over the horizon, shell pink and faintly gold, as he washed, again following the train of thought that had come to him in the dark garden....

From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling

Related Words

• acumen
• analysis
• argument
• hypothesis
• inference
• interpretation
• premise
• proposition
• rationale
• thinking