Thinking

How to spell thinking

8 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce thinking

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does thinking mean?

1. nounThe process of using one's mind to consider, reason, or form opinions.
2. adjectiveCapable of or given to rational thought and reflection.

Thinking in a sentence

• noun

  Clear thinking helped her solve the budget problem quickly.

• adjective

  Any thinking person would question those figures.

• noun

  The proposal showed careful thinking about long-term costs.

• adjective

  The documentary appeals to a thinking audience.

Where does thinking come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word grows from the Old English verb thencan, meaning 'to conceive in the mind, to consider', which itself traces back to a Proto-Germanic root shared with the German denken. The closely related Old English noun thanc, meaning 'a thought' or 'a feeling of gratitude', is the same source that gives us the modern word 'thank', since to thank someone was originally to think well of them. The form 'thinking' is the gerund and present participle, built simply by adding the productive ending -ing to the verb. The spelling looks straightforward, but the buried trap is the silent path from the 'nk' sound to the written letters: the consonant cluster is spelled n-k even though the tongue produces a single nasal sound. The word has been in continuous English use for well over a thousand years, making it one of the oldest and most stable items in the everyday vocabulary.

How the word is built

• think (from Old English thencan: to conceive in the mind)
• -ing (forming a noun or participle)