Rethink

How to spell rethink

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce rethink

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does rethink mean?

1. verbTo consider something again, especially in order to change a decision or plan.
2. nounAn act of reconsidering something, often leading to a change of plan or opinion.

Rethink in a sentence

• verb

  The board asked the team to rethink the budget before the next meeting.

• noun

  The failed launch prompted a complete rethink of the marketing strategy.

• verb

  Rising fuel prices forced many families to rethink their holiday plans.

• noun

  These poor results call for a serious rethink about how the office is run.

Where does rethink come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a transparent compound built from the prefix re-, borrowed from Latin where it meant 'again' or 'back', and the native English verb 'think', which descends from Old English 'thencan', meaning to conceive or form an idea in the mind. The verb 'think' has deep Germanic roots and is closely related to 'thought', its old past-tense form, and even to the noun 'thanks', which originally carried the sense of holding someone in mind kindly. Although the re- element is Latin in origin, it had become a fully productive English prefix by the later medieval period, free to attach to native words, and 'rethink' is one such modern formation that emerged in the nineteenth century to mean considering something fresh. The spelling is reliably regular: the prefix simply sits in front of the unchanged word 'think', so there is no doubling, no dropped letter, and no joining vowel. The only real trap is the silent-feeling spelling of 'think' itself, with its 'th' and the 'nk' cluster that hides the 'g'-like sound.

How the word is built

• re- (again)
• think (to form an idea or judgment in the mind)