think
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: enpr: thĭngk
ipa: /θɪŋk/
ipa: [θɪŋk]
ipa: [θæŋk]
note: th-fronting
ipa: [fɪŋk]
ipa: [tɪŋk]
rhymes: -ɪŋk
Forms: form: thinks
form: thinking
form: thought
form: thought
form: no-table-tags
form: glossary
form: think
form: think
form: thought
form: think
form: thinkest
form: thought
form: thoughtest
form: thinks
form: thinketh
form: thought
form: think
form: thought
form: think
form: thought
form: think
form: -
form: thinking
form: thought
form: thunk
form: thinck
form: thinke
Etymology: From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken, thenchen, from Old English þenċan, from Proto-West Germanic *þankijan, from Proto-Germanic *þankijaną (“to think”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think, feel, know”).
Cognate with Scots think, thynk (“to think”), North Frisian teenk, taanke, tanke, tånke (“to think”), Saterland Frisian toanke (“to think”), West Frisian tinke (“to think”), Dutch denken, dinken (“to think”), Afrikaans dink (“to think”), Low German denken, dinken (“to think”), German denken (“to think”), Danish tænke (“to think”), Swedish tänka (“to think”), Norwegian Bokmål tenke (“to think”), Norwegian Nynorsk tenkja (“to think”), Icelandic þekkja (“to know, recognise, identify, perceive”), Latin tongeō (“know”).
Senses: examples: text: Idly, the detective thought what his next move should be.
text: Had we but world enough and time / This coyness, lady, were no crime. / We would sit down, and think which way / To walk, and pass our long love's day.
ref: c. 1650, Andrew Marvell, To His Coy Mistress
glosses: To ponder, to go over in one's mind.
examples: text: "I should phone my mother," I thought.
text: So this was my future home, I thought! Certainly it made a brave picture. I had seen similar ones fired-in on many a Heidelberg stein. Backed by towering hills,[…]a sky of palest Gobelin flecked with fat, fleecy little clouds, it in truth looked a dear little city; the city of one's dreams.
ref: 1908, W[illiam] B[lair] M[orton] Ferguson, chapter IV, in Zollenstein, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To have (some statement) in one's mind; to say to oneself mentally.
examples: text: I thought for three hours about the problem and still couldn’t find the solution.
text: Thinks I to myself, “Sol, you're run off your course again. This is a rich man's summer ‘cottage’ and if you don't look out there's likely to be some nice, lively dog taking an interest in your underpinning.”
ref: 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
glosses: To communicate to oneself in one's mind, to try to find a solution to a problem.
examples: text: I tend to think of her as rather ugly.
text: Think of banking today and the image is of grey-suited men in towering skyscrapers. Its future, however, is being shaped in converted warehouses and funky offices in San Francisco, New York and London, where bright young things in jeans and T-shirts huddle around laptops, sipping lattes or munching on free food.
ref: 2013 August 3, “Revenge of the nerds”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
glosses: To conceive of something or someone (usually followed by of; infrequently, by on).
examples: text: I don't think it worth complaining about the leak in the roof, is it?
text: I hope you won’t think me stupid if I ask you what that means.
text: She thought it pointless starting before four o'clock.
text: I think she is pretty, contrary to most people.
text: Boxing is thought to be a dangerous sport.
text: It was thought that I was the mole in the company.
text: My brother he is in Elizium, / Perchance he is not drown'd: What thinke you, ſaylors?.
ref: c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii], page 255, column 2:
text: 1865, Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod, Chapter IX. "The Sea and the Desert", page 182.
[…] one man showed me a young oak which he had transplanted from behind the town, thinking it an apple-tree.
text: Now all this was very fine, but not at all in keeping with the Celebrity's character as I had come to conceive it. The idea that adulation ever cloyed on him was ludicrous in itself. In fact I thought the whole story fishy, and came very near to saying so.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter III, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: To be of opinion (that); to consider, judge, regard, or look upon (something) as.
examples: text: We should/would have thought she could've washed her hands before, at least.
glosses: To guess; to reckon; to believe while admittedly being uncertain.
examples: text: The cupbearer shrugged up his shoulders in displeasure. "I thought to have lodged him in the solere chamber," said he[…]
ref: 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
text: “Well,” I answered, at first with uncertainty, then with inspiration, “he would do splendidly to lead your cotillon, if you think of having one.” ¶ “So you do not dance, Mr. Crocker?” ¶ I was somewhat set back by her perspicuity.
ref: 1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
glosses: To plan; to be considering; to be of a mind (to do something).
examples: text: Think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 3:9:
glosses: To presume; to venture.
examples: text: These plants are dead.
Uh, you think?
glosses: Ellipsis of think so.
raw_tags: used to show obviousness or agreement
Synonyms: sense: ponder
word: ponder
sense: be of the opinion (that)
word: have opinion
sense: guess, reckon
word: guess See Thesaurus:suppose
sense: consider, judge, regard something as
word: deem
word: think
Hyponyms: word: consider
word: cogitate
word: deem
word: deliberate
word: dream
word: mull
word: muse
word: ponder
word: ruminate
word: reflect
word: sleep on
word: wonder
Meronyms: word: abstract
word: calculate
word: compare
word: conceive
word: contrast
word: estimate
word: exemplify
word: imagine
word: match
word: project
word: recall
Derived terms: bethink
close one's eyes and think of England
come to think of it
don't even think about it
do you think you can walk
forethink
give someone something to think about
great minds think alike
group-think
have another think
hear oneself think
I don't think
I don't think so
ill-thought-out
I think not
I think so
I think therefore I am
I thought you'd never ask
lie back and think of England
makes you think
overthink
quick-thinking
rethink
shut one's eyes and think of England
straight-thinking
think about
think again
think all one's Christmases have come at once
think aloud
think aloud protocol
think-aloud protocol
think back
think better of
think big
thinker
think factory
think fast
think for oneself
think good
think little of
think meat
think much of
think no end of oneself
think nothing of
think nothing of it
thinko
think of
think of England
think of the children
think on
think one hung the moon
think one is God's own cousin
think one is it
think one's shit doesn't stink
think on one's feet
think out
think out loud
think over
think-pair-share
think-pair-sharing
think piece
think straight
think tank
think-tank
think-tanked
think-tanker
think the sun shines out of someone's arse
think the sun shines out of someone's ass
think the sun shines out of someone's backside
think the sun shines out of someone's butt
think the world of
think the world revolves around one
think through
think time
think too much
think twice
think up
think with one's little head
think with one's other head
think with one's penis
think with portals
to think that
underthink
unthink
unthinkable
who do you think you are
who would have thought it
won't someone think of the children
you'd think
you think
you would think
Related terms: word: forthink
word: thank
word: thought
word: thunk
word: have opinion
word: suppose