pensive
adjective
Simple meaning
Engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
pehnsivSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ˈpɛnsɪv
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought.
Having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.
Looking thoughtful, especially from sadness.
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Engaged in, involving, or reflecting deep or serious thought.
Used this way, pensive is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Nearby words
- broody , rarer, so it draws attention
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
Share your sentence
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: engaged in or involving or or reflecting deep
Use This Word
See how this word sounds in a real sentence.
Ask Vocabaura
Understand the word your way.
What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
Use it yourself
Knowing “pensive” starts when you use it. Pick a next step, all free.
Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.