Contemplative
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /kənˈtɛmplətɪv/ · Part of speech adjective
Quick meaning: Contemplative is an adjective meaning Inclined to contemplate; introspective and thoughtful; meditative.
Meaning
Inclined to contemplate; introspective and thoughtful; meditative.
More Meanings
- Pertaining to a religious contemplative, or a contemplative religious orders, especially the Roman Catholic varieties.
- Relating to, or having the power of, contemplation.
- Someone who has dedicated themselves to religious or philosophical contemplation.
- (medicine, psychiatry) In a phase of mental activity in which one begins to recognize and acknowledge the maladaptiveness of someone's behavior (such as one's own, or that of a family member or friend); usually with reference to substance use.
Example Sentences
contemplative faculties
The contemplative must not expect exotic feelings, visions or heavenly voices; these did not come from God but from his own fevered imagination and would merely distract him from his true objective [...].
Like the white page that surrounds the darkness of each letter you are reading here, eternity surrounds each heartbeat, and as the contemplative watches his breath, he can move out of time through the doorway which opens in the interval between each heartbeat.
Compared with the greatest poets, he may be said to be the poet of unpoetical natures, possessed of quiet and contemplative tastes. But unpoetical natures are precisely those which require poetic cultivation. This cultivation Wordsworth is much more fitted to give, than poets who are intrinsically far more poets than he.
Word Forms
- contemplatives
Synonyms for contemplative
Depending on context, synonyms include attentive, calculant, cogitabund, deliberative, intelligent, introspective.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include meditative, musing, ruminative, pensive, pondering, thoughtful.
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Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.