Thinking

//ˈθɪŋkɪŋ// noun, verb

noun, verb ·Common ·High school level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    The action or process of using one's mind to consider or reason about something. uncountable, usually
  2. 2
    the process of using your mind to consider something carefully wordnet
  3. 3
    A thought. uncountable, usually

    "What is your thinking on this subject?"

Verb
  1. 1
    present participle and gerund of think form-of, gerund, participle, present

    "I'm thinking about inventing a new perpetual-motion machine."

Adjective
  1. 1
    endowed with the capacity to reason wordnet

Example

More examples

"It's useless to keep on thinking any more."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From Middle English thinking, thynkynge, thenkyng, equivalent to think + -ing.

Etymology 2

From Middle English thenkinge, þinkynge, þenkynge, þenchinde, from Old English þenċende, from Proto-Germanic *þankijandz, present participle of *þankijaną (“to think”), equivalent to think + -ing. Cognate with Dutch denkend (“thinking”), German denkend (“thinking”), Swedish tänkande (“thinking”).

Related phrases

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