think

English Online Dictionary. What means think‎? What does think mean?

English

Alternative forms

• thinck, thinke (obsolete)

Pronunciation

• enPR: thĭngk, IPA^(key): /θɪŋk/, [θɪŋk]
  • (Appalachia) IPA^(key): [θæŋk]
  • (th-fronting) IPA^(key): [fɪŋk]
  • (Ireland) IPA^(key): [tɪŋk]
• Rhymes: -ɪŋk

Etymology 1

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 (“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”).

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)

1. (transitive) To ponder, to go over in one's head.
2. (intransitive) To communicate to oneself in one's mind, to try to find a solution to a problem.
3. (intransitive) To conceive of something or someone (usually followed by of; infrequently, by on).
4. (transitive) To be of opinion (that); to consider, judge, regard, or look upon (something) as.
   • 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.
5. (transitive) To guess; to reckon.

6. To plan; to be considering; to be of a mind (to do something).
7. To presume; to venture.
8. (informal, used to show obviousness or agreement) Ellipsis of think so.

Conjugation

Synonyms

• (ponder): See Thesaurus:ponder
• (communicate to oneself in one's mind): See Thesaurus:think
• (be of the opinion (that)): See Thesaurus:have opinion
• (guess, reckon): guess See Thesaurus:suppose
• (consider, judge, regard something as): See Thesaurus:deem

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

think (usually uncountable, plural thinks)

1. (chiefly UK) An act of thinking; consideration (of something).

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English thinken, thynken, thenken (also thinchen, thünchen), from Old English þyncan (“to seem, appear”), from Proto-Germanic *þunkijaną (“to seem”).

Cognate with Dutch dunken (“to seem, appear”), German dünken (“to seem, appear”), Danish tykkes (“to seem”), Swedish tycka (“to seem, think, regard”), Icelandic þykja (“to be regarded, be considered, seem”). More at methinks.

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past and past participle thought)

2. (obsolete except in methinks) To seem, to appear.

Translations

References

Scots

Etymology

From earlier thynk, from Middle English thynken, thinken, from Old English þencan, þenċean.

Verb

think (third-person singular simple present thinks, present participle thinking, simple past thocht, past participle thocht)

1. (transitive) to think, to conceive, to have in mind
2. (transitive) to believe, to hold as an opinion, to judge; to feel, to have as an emotion
3. (transitive or intransitive) to ponder, to meditate, to consider, to reflect on
4. (transitive or intransitive) to have scruples, to doubt, to reconsider
5. to devise, to work out, to contrive
6. (archaic, with shame) to be ashamed

Noun

think (plural thinks)

1. thought, opinion, frequently one’s own opinion

References

• “think” in Dictionary of the Scots Language, Scottish Language Dictionaries, Edinburgh, retrieved 19 June 2018.