Thoughtful

How to spell thoughtful

10 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce thoughtful

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does thoughtful mean?

1. adjectiveShowing care and consideration for the needs and feelings of other people.
2. adjectiveAbsorbed in or characterised by careful thought and serious reflection.

Thoughtful in a sentence

• The thoughtful gift showed how well she knew her colleague.

• She fell into a thoughtful silence while reviewing the proposal.

• It was thoughtful of him to leave a note explaining the change.

• His thoughtful analysis weighed every possible outcome before deciding.

Where does thoughtful come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built from the native English noun 'thought', which descends from the Old English 'thoht' or 'geðoht', meaning an act of thinking or something held in the mind, itself related to the verb 'thencan', 'to think'. To that base was added the productive Germanic suffix '-ful', which originally meant 'full of' and characterised a quality, so 'thoughtful' literally meant 'full of thought'. The adjective is recorded from around the late 1300s, at first describing someone absorbed in serious reflection. Over time it gained the warmer, social sense we now favour, of being considerate of other people's feelings and needs. The spelling trap lives in the silent 'gh' cluster, a relic of an old guttural sound that English stopped pronouncing but never stopped writing.

How the word is built

• thought (from think, mental consideration)
• -ful (full of, characterised by)