CONTEMPLATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does contemplation mean? 

• CONTEMPLATION (noun)
  The noun CONTEMPLATION has 2 senses:

1. a long and thoughtful observation

2. a calm, lengthy, intent consideration

  Familiarity information: CONTEMPLATION used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CONTEMPLATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A long and thoughtful observation

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("contemplation" is a kind of...):

stare (a fixed look with eyes open wide)

Derivation:

contemplate (look at thoughtfully; observe deep in thought)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A calm, lengthy, intent consideration

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

contemplation; musing; reflection; reflexion; rumination; thoughtfulness

Hypernyms ("contemplation" is a kind of...):

consideration (the process of giving careful thought to something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "contemplation"):

cogitation; study (attentive consideration and meditation)

meditation; speculation (continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature)

meditation ((religion) contemplation of spiritual matters (usually on religious or philosophical subjects))

introspection; self-contemplation; self-examination (the contemplation of your own thoughts and desires and conduct)

retrospect (contemplation of things past)

Derivation:

contemplate (reflect deeply on a subject)

contemplate (consider as a possibility)

contemplate (think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes)

contemplate (look at thoughtfully; observe deep in thought)

 Context examples 

The mind recoiled from contemplation of a world beyond this wet veil which wrapped us around.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I wonder they don't knock out their brains against—against mantelpieces, said my aunt; an idea which was probably suggested to her by her contemplation of mine.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He broke from a mournful contemplation of it to look over his wounded dogs.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

Having removed this impediment, and lifted certain silvery envelopes of tissue paper, she merely exclaimed—"Oh ciel! Que c'est beau!" and then remained absorbed in ecstatic contemplation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

A considerable crime is in contemplation.

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

She stood several minutes before the picture, in earnest contemplation, and returned to it again before they quitted the gallery.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The old man, whom I soon perceived to be blind, employed his leisure hours on his instrument or in contemplation.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature; contemplation of spiritual matters

(Meditation Therapy, NCI Thesaurus)

The happiness of this most happy day, received its completion, in the animated contemplation of his worth which this comparison produced.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

I had not yet been a year in this country before I contracted such a love and veneration for the inhabitants, that I entered on a firm resolution never to return to humankind, but to pass the rest of my life among these admirable Houyhnhnms, in the contemplation and practice of every virtue, where I could have no example or incitement to vice.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)