ponder

From Old French ponderer (“to weigh, balance, ponder”) (French pondérer), from Latin ponderare (“to weigh, ponder, in Medieval Latin also to load”), from pondus (“weight”), from pendere (“to weigh”); see pendent and pound.

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɒn.də(ɹ)/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ɒndə(ɹ)

ponder (third-person singular simple present ponders, present participle pondering, simple past and past participle pondered)

1. to wonder, think of deeply
2. to consider (something) carefully and thoroughly; to chew over, mull over

   I have spent days pondering the meaning of life.

   • Bible, Proverbs iv. 26

     Ponder the path of thy feet.

3. (obsolete) to weigh

• chew over
• mull over
• See also Thesaurus:ponder

ponder (plural ponders)

1. (colloquial) A period of deep thought.

   I lit my pipe and had a ponder about it, but reached no definite conclusion.

• ponder in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• ponder in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Penrod