ponderformal

Thesaurus: synonyms, antonyms, and examples

to think carefully about something
considerDon't make any decisions before you've considered the matter.
contemplateHe lay in a hospital bed contemplating his future.
ponderShe sat back for a minute to ponder her next move in the game.
mull overI need a few days to mull things over before I decide.
reflectI spent a lot of time reflecting on what he'd said.
agonizeShe agonized for days before agreeing to take the job.
I'm contemplating leaving my job.
Losing a child is just too awful to contemplate.
I couldn't contemplate living on my own.
He was contemplating his future.

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Thinking and contemplating
a brown studyidiom
agonize
agonize over/about something
beard-stroking
bethink
grapple
harbour
heart-searching
hit on/upon something
I/we'll (have to) seeidiom
in the cold light of dayidiom
introspect
navel
reckon
revisit
reweigh
rumination
run through someone's mind/headidiom
scratch your headidiom
weigh

Examples of contemplating

contemplating

In English, many past and present participles of verbs can be used as adjectives. Some of these examples may show the adjective use.

Not even those students contemplating a career in music felt that daily practice was necessary to maintain standards.
Clearly these are dramatically different pictures for the reader contemplating long horizon investment decisions.
The length seemed to reflect both the men's verbal ability and emotional overload when contemplating the future.
Visiting and contemplating the historical markers requires climbing to their location on the hill, keeping bodily and cognitive memory closely linked.
As an example, consider a setting in which the government is contemplating introducing a publicly provided asset into a market economy.
This analysis was conducted to both help those agencies with established systems and to provide guidance to agencies contemplating setting up new systems.
However, this book will be an invaluable companion to anyone involved in, or contemplating undertaking, clinical trials research.
The tool may be used, for instance, where a hospital is contemplating the introduction of new health technology.
Contemplating total artificial heart inactivation in cases of futility.
In theory, the person contemplating death is powerless to affect the relative entitlement of his heirs.
Another 10 were housed but dissatisfied with their housing and contemplating abandonment.
The reason is that seeing is not contemplating an internal representation, but doing something of a visual nature with the information available to the brain.
Such audiences are not sitting and concentrating, contemplating the performance of a piece from a well-known repertoire or the concept of an avant-garde innovation.
Another was contemplating leaving her employment for this reason.
These were important considerations when contemplating the generation of musical/sound outcomes.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.