Contemplating

How to spell contemplating

13 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce contemplating

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does contemplating mean?

1. verbThinking deeply and at length about something, or considering a possible course of action.

Contemplating in a sentence

• She was contemplating a complete change of career after twenty years in finance.

• After the long meeting, he sat quietly contemplating the proposal on the table.

Where does contemplating come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb contemplari, meaning 'to gaze at attentively' or 'to observe carefully'. It was built from the intensifying prefix con- and the noun templum, which originally referred to a space the Roman augurs marked out in the sky or on the ground for watching the flight of birds and reading omens; that same templum gives us the word 'temple'. So to contemplate was literally to study something inside that marked-out field of view, and the sense gradually broadened from physical watching to thinking deeply or considering. English took the verb in the late 1500s, largely through French forms of the Latin, and added the regular -ing ending to make the present participle. The spelling trap lives in the middle: the unstressed schwa of 'con-tem-PLAY-ting' hides the 'temp' that links it back to templum, and writers sometimes drop letters or double the wrong consonant.

How the word is built

• con- (intensive prefix)
• templ (from templum: a space marked out for observation)
• -ate (verb)
• -ing (present participle)