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

Related Words

• contemplative
• dreamy
• sober
• thoughtful
• wistful