Library / English Dictionary

PONDER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reflect deeply on a subject

Example:

The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate

Synonyms:

chew over; contemplate; excogitate; meditate; mull; mull over; muse; ponder; reflect; ruminate; speculate; think over

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Hypernyms (to "ponder" is one way to...):

cerebrate; cogitate; think (use or exercise the mind or one's power of reason in order to make inferences, decisions, or arrive at a solution or judgments)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ponder"):

premeditate (think or reflect beforehand or in advance)

theologise; theologize (make theoretical speculations about theology or discuss theological subjects)

introspect (reflect on one's own thoughts and feelings)

bethink (consider or ponder something carefully)

cogitate (consider carefully and deeply; reflect upon; turn over in one's mind)

question; wonder (place in doubt or express doubtful speculation)

puzzle (be uncertain about; think about without fully understanding or being able to decide)

consider; study (give careful consideration to)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

ponderer (a reflective thinker characterized by quiet contemplation)

Credits

 Context examples: 

If Alleyne Edricson had enough to ponder over as he rode through the bare plains of Guienne, his two companions were more busy with the present and less thoughtful of the future.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

You may aim to collect your thoughts, breathe, and ponder how to best use your talents in the coming year.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

She pondered, but could think of nothing.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

The window, the curtains, the carpet, the chair, the rope—each in turn was minutely examined and duly pondered.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Meanwhile the miser crept out of the bush half-naked and in a piteous plight, and began to ponder how he should take his revenge, and serve his late companion some trick.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

In his slow and pondering way, Skiff Miller looked at him, then asked, with a nod of his head toward Madge: How d'you know she's your wife? You just say, 'Because she is,' and I'll say it's mere assertion.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

For an hour I sat pondering over it in the gloom, until at last a weeping maid brought in a lamp, and close at her heels came my friend Trevor, pale but composed, with these very papers which lie upon my knee held in his grasp.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The singular incident made, as you may think, the deepest impression upon me, and I pondered over it and turned it every way in my mind without being able to make anything of it.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sick of ambitious and mercenary connexions, prizing more and more the sterling good of principle and temper, and chiefly anxious to bind by the strongest securities all that remained to him of domestic felicity, he had pondered with genuine satisfaction on the more than possibility of the two young friends finding their natural consolation in each other for all that had occurred of disappointment to either; and the joyful consent which met Edmund's application, the high sense of having realised a great acquisition in the promise of Fanny for a daughter, formed just such a contrast with his early opinion on the subject when the poor little girl's coming had been first agitated, as time is for ever producing between the plans and decisions of mortals, for their own instruction, and their neighbours' entertainment.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Whether he would have proceeded farther was left to Anne's imagination to ponder over in a calmer hour; for while still hearing the sounds he had uttered, she was startled to other subjects by Henrietta, eager to make use of the present leisure for getting out, and calling on her companions to lose no time, lest somebody else should come in.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)