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Definition of pensively - 3 dictionary results

pen⋅sive

  [pen-siv]
Use pensively in a Sentence
–adjective
1. dreamily or wistfully thoughtful: a pensive mood.
2. expressing or revealing thoughtfulness, usually marked by some sadness: a pensive adagio.
Origin:
1325–75; < F (fem.); r. ME pensif < MF (masc.), deriv. of penser to think < L pēnsāre to weigh, consider, deriv. of pēnsus, ptp. of pendere. See pension, -ive

Related forms:
pen⋅sive⋅ly, adverb
pen⋅sive⋅ness, noun

Synonyms:
1. 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.

Antonyms:
1. thoughtless.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
Cite This Source Link To pensively
pen·sive   (pěn'sĭv)   
adj.  
  1. Deeply, often wistfully or dreamily thoughtful.
  2. Suggestive or expressive of melancholy thoughtfulness.

[Middle English pensif, from Old French, from penser, to think, from Latin pēnsāre, frequentative of pendere, to weigh; see (s)pen- in Indo-European roots.]
pen'sive·ly adv., pen'sive·ness n.
Synonyms: These adjectives mean characterized by or disposed to thought, especially serious or deep thought. Pensive often connotes a wistful, dreamy, or sad quality: "while pensive poets painful vigils keep" (Alexander Pope).
Contemplative implies slow directed consideration, often with conscious intent of achieving better understanding or spiritual or aesthetic enrichment: "The Contemplative Atheist is rare ... And yet they seem to be more than they are" (Francis Bacon).
Reflective suggests careful analytical deliberation, as in reappraising past experience: "Cromwell was of the active, not the reflective temper" (John Morley).
Meditative implies earnest sustained thought: The scholar was reticent, aloof, and meditative.
Thoughtful can refer to absorption in thought or to the habit of reflection and circumspection: Thoughtful voters carefully considered the candidates.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Pensively

Pen"sive*ly\, adv. In a pensive manner.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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