PONDER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does ponder mean? 

• PONDER (verb)
  The verb PONDER has 1 sense:

1. reflect deeply on a subject

  Familiarity information: PONDER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PONDER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ponder    ... he / she / it ponders   
Past simple: pondered   
Past participle: pondered   
-ing form: pondering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reflect deeply on a subject

Classified under:

Verbs of thinking, judging, analyzing, doubting

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate

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)

 Context examples 

Weedon Scott pondered for a moment.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Bless my heart alive! said Mr. Omer, pondering, how she loves that child!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

But Jo had made up her mind, and after pondering over a project for some days, she confided it to her mother.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I kept these things then, and pondered them in my heart.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He lay in dull despair, while she watched him searchingly, pondering again upon unsummoned and wayward thoughts of marriage.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There is certainly something to ponder over in this man's state.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

I still slept in the boat, and I lay awake long that night, gazing up at the first stars I had seen in many nights and pondering the situation.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I got down, therefore, and pondered over what I should do.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Light pollution does more than rob humans of the opportunity to ponder the night sky.

(Milky Way now hidden from a third of humanity, NOAA)

Pondering over these heart-rending tidings, Catherine walked slowly upstairs.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)