thought
nounUK /θɔːt/ · AU, UK, NZ /θoːt/
Etymology From Middle English thought, ithoȝt, from Old English þōht, ġeþōht, from Proto-West Germanic *þą̄ht, from Proto-Germanic *þanhtaz, *gaþanhtą (“thought”), from Proto-Indo-European *teng- (“to think”). Cognate with Scots thocht (“thought”), Saterland Frisian Toacht (“thought”), West Frisian dacht (“attention, regard, thought”), Dutch gedachte (“thought”), German Andacht (“reverence, devotion, prayer”), Icelandic þóttur (“thought”). Related to thank, think.
A representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.
- The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.
- I hate the thought of going back to work Monday morning.
2 more examples
- I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC:
- He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
The operation by which mental activity arise or are manipulated; the process of thinking; the agency by which thinking is accomplished.
- Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.
- The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.a. 1983, Paul Fix (attributed quote)
1 more example
- What has been especially striking in recent decades, however, is the rise of new outlooks challenging the very idea of a nucleated (if evasive) inner personal identity. … We don't think our thoughts, they think us; we are but the bearers of discourses, our selves are discursive constructs. Within such frames of analysis, any notion of the ascent of selfhood is but idle teleological myth, a humanist hagiography.2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Ch.1, at p.14, 15
A way of thinking (associated with a group, nation or region).
- Traditional eastern thought differs markedly from that of the west.
Dialectal Anxiety, distress.
- Which of you by taking thought, can adde one cubite vnto his ſtature?1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:27:
The careful consideration of multiple factors; deliberation.
- After much thought, I have decided to stay.
A very small amount, distance, etc.; a whit or jot.
- 'Bide the night at Heriotside,' says he. 'It's a thought out of your way, but it's a comfortable bit.'1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
- Derived terms
99 terms
aforethought, afterthought, bethought, chain of thought, collect one's thoughts, counterthought, food for thought, forethought, freedom of thought, free thought, gather one's thoughts, give thought, habit of thought, have another thought coming, hindthought, hold that thought, intrusive thought, it's the thought that counts, line of thought, lost in thought, merrythought, metathought, midthought, misthought, mode of thought, mood-thought, MTE, nether thought, netherthought, nonthought, on second thought, on second thoughts, overthought, park that thought, passthought, penny for your thoughts, perish the thought, quick as thought, school of thought, second thought, shower thought, spare a thought for, there's a thought, thought balloon, thought-bearing, thought blocking, thought broadcasting, thought bubble, thoughtcast, thoughtcasting, thought collective, thought control, thought-controlled, thoughtcrime, thought criminal, thought echo, thoughted, thought experiment, thought-form, thoughtform, thoughtful, thought-leader, thought leader, thoughtless, thoughtlet, thoughtlike, thoughtograph, thoughtographer, thoughtography, thought-out, thought path, thought pattern, thought piece, thought police, thought process, thoughtproof, thought-provoking, thought reform, thoughts and prayers, thoughtscape, thoughtseed, thought shower, thoughtsick, thoughtsome, thought-terminating cliché, thought transference, thought wave, thoughtway, thought-world, thoughtworthy, thoughty, thread of thought, train of thought, twithought, underthought, unthought, unthoughted, wishful thought, wrongthought