Pensive

adj

adj ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought.

    "He sat in pensive silence, weighing his options carefully."

  2. 2
    Having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.

    "The author’s tone grows pensive in the final chapters."

  3. 3
    Looking thoughtful, especially from sadness.

    "Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce"

Adjective
  1. 1
    showing pensive sadness wordnet
  2. 2
    deeply or seriously thoughtful wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
meditativesadthoughtfulabsentabsent-mindedabsentminded

Example

More examples

"Pensive he stood, and with a rising tear, / "What lands, Achates, on the earth, but know / our labours?""

Etymology

From Middle English pensif, pensyfe, pencyve, from Old French pensif (“thoughtful”), from penser (“to think”) (from Latin pēnsō) + -if (English -ive).

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.