Synonyms for ponder
Most common
All synonyms
Verb
1. Ruminate — to consider (something) carefully and thoroughly
ruminate, think over, contemplate, mull, mull over, meditate, reflect, think, consider, chew over, speculate, cogitate, muse, introspect, deliberate, weigh, digest, study, chew informal, chew the cud, excogitate, revolve dated rare
Definitions
- v. 1
To consider (something) carefully and thoroughly.
I have spent days pondering the meaning of life.
Related words
- Word family
- ponderable pondersome
Forms
- Past participle
- pondered
e.g. pondered → ruminated, contemplated, mulled, meditated…
Example sentences
- contemplate Let's contemplate Swedish meatballs for a moment.
- mull I need time to mull things over before I decide what to do.
Popularity over time
| Word | 1850 → 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|
| ponder | rising | |
| contemplate | steady | |
| mull | steady | |
| ruminate | rising |
Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.
By length
- 4 letters
- chew1, muse1, mull1
- 5 letters
- think1, study2, weigh1
- 6 letters
- digest2
- 7 letters
- reflect2, revolve2
- 8 letters
- consider3, meditate3, ruminate3, cogitate3
- 9 letters
- speculate3
- 10 letters
- deliberate4, introspect3, excogitate
- 11 letters
- contemplate3
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (study2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- réfléchir
- Deutsch
- reflektieren