thought

I

(New American Roget's College Thesaurus)

Mental activity

Nouns

1. thought, thoughtfulness; reflection, cogitation, consideration, meditation, study, lucubration, speculation, deliberation, pondering; head-work, brainwork; cerebration; deep reflection, rumination, close study, application, attention; abstract thought, abstraction; doublethink (see absurdity); contemplation, musing, preoccupation, brown study, reverie, Platonism; self-counsel, self-communing, self-consultation; association, succession, or flow of ideas; train or current of thought, stream of consciousness; lateral or vertical thinking; positive thinking, mind over matter. See judgment, intellect, reasoning.

2. (rethinking) afterthought, mature thought, reconsideration, secondthought; retrospection, hindsight; memory;excogitation; examination(see inquiry); invention (see imagination).

3. (subject for thought) idea, concept, notion; opinion, conceit, belief, impression; principle; topic, subject of thought, material or food for thought; subject [matter], matter, theme, thesis, text, business, affair, matter inhand, argument; motion, resolution; head, chapter; case, point; proposition, theorem (see supposition); field of inquiry; moot point, problem.

Verbs

1. think, reflect, cogitate, cerebrate, excogitate, consider, think over, deliberate, lucubrate; rationalize, speculate, contemplate, meditate, ponder, muse, dream, ruminate; brood upon; animadvert, study; bend or apply the mind; digest, discuss, weigh; realize, appreciate; fancy; think on one's feet. Slang, beat one's brains (out), use one's head, bean, noodle, or noggin.

2. take into consideration; see about or to; take counsel, commune with oneself, bethink oneself; collect one's thoughts; revolve, turn over or run over in the mind; sleep on; rack one's brains; set one's wits to work; puzzle or pore over; take into one's head; bear in mind; reconsider, think better of; put on one's thinking cap. Informal, sweat over, chew the cud, mull over. Slang, kick around.

3. occur, present, or suggest itself; come into one's head; strike one, cross or pass through the mind, occupy the mind; have on one's mind; make an impression; sink in, penetrate the mind; engross the thoughts; come to think of it. Informal, take a notion.

Adjectives — thinking, thoughtful, pensive, meditative, reflective, musing, wistful, contemplative, speculative, deliberative, studious, sedate, introspective, platonic, philosophical, metaphysic[al]; rational; lost in thought, engrossed, absorbed, rapt, preoccupied; in the mind, under consideration; on one's chest. Slang, on the brain.

Adverbs — thoughtfully, reflectively; all things considered.

Phrases — there is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come; great minds think alike; two heads are better than one; penny for your thoughts.

Quotations — Yond Cassius has a mean and hungry look; he thinks too much: such men are dangerous (Shakespeare), I think, therefore I am (René Descartes), Stung by the splendor of a sudden thought (Robert Browning), How can I tell what I think till I see what I say? (E. M. Forster), A man of action forced into a state of thought is unhappy until he can get out of it (John Galsworthy), The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do (B. F. Skinner), Being and thought are one (Jean Dubuffet), There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so (Shakespeare).

Antonyms, see rashness, inattention.

II

(Roget's IV) n.

1. [Mental activity]

Syn. speculation, reflection, deliberation, cerebration, ideation, meditation, rumination, perceiving, apprehending, seeing, consideration, reasoning, intuition, imagination, logical process, perception, insight, understanding, viewpoint, concept, brainwork, thinking, knowing, realizing, discerning, rationalizing, drawing conclusions, concluding, inferring, deducing, deriving, deduction, inducing, logic, judging, rationalization, ratiocination, judgment, argumentation, cogitation, contemplation, cognition, intellection, slant*, brainstorm*, twist*, wrinkle*; see also acumen .

2. [The result of mental activity]

Syn. idea, plan, view, fancy, notion, impression, image, understanding, appreciation, conception, observation, belief, feeling, opinion, guess, inference, theory, hypothesis, supposition, assumption, intuition, conjecture, deduction, postulate, premise, knowledge, evaluation, assessment, appraisal, estimate, verdict, finding, decision, determination, reflection, consideration, abstraction, conviction, tenet, presumption, intellectualization, ideation, surmise, doctrine, principle, drift, calculation, caprice, reverie, sentiment, care, worry, anxiety, uneasiness, dream.

3. [The ideas of a given time, place, people, etc.]

Syn. philosophy, way of life, outlook, views, principles, worldview, Weltanschauung (German), Zeitgeist (German), spirit, custom, mores.

4. [Care or attention]

Syn. heed, thoughtfulness, solicitude; see attention 1 , 2 , care 2 .

See Synonym Study at idea .

III

(Roget's 3 Superthesaurus) n.

1. thinking cogitation, intellection, cerebration, concentration, reflection, consideration, cognition, study, meditation, deliberation, contemplation, rumination, reflection, pondering, speculating, weighing, brown study, reasoning, rationalization, calculation, deduction, introspection. ''Dreams till their effects be tried.''—Shakespeare. ''An electrochemical soup stirred by pleasure, pain and nervous impulses.''—Jack E. French. ''Feelings gone to seed.''—John Burroughs.

2. intellect imagination, brain power, intelligence, reason, smarts, *gray matter.

3. idea concept, notion, theory, hypothesis, *brainstorm, belief, assumption, conclusion, opinion, surmise.

4. attention consideration, regard, study, notice.

IV

(Roget's Thesaurus II) noun 1. The act or process of thinking: brainwork, cerebration, cogitation, contemplation, deliberation, excogitation, meditation, reflection, rumination, speculation. See THOUGHTS. 2. That which exists in the mind as the product of careful mental activity: concept, conception, idea, image, notion, perception. See THOUGHTS.