thinking

plural thinkings

1. uncountableusuallyThe action or process of using one's mind to consider or reason about something.

   It made me feel a little nauseous but was great for powering through boring tasks. It did not, however, do anything for my creativity or improve my thinking in any way.

   2019 August 5, Arwa Mahdawi, “Self-hypnosis, amphetamines? I tried eight hacks in my quest to be more productive”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 30 Aug 2019

   Synonyms: mentation

2. uncountableusuallyA thought.

   What is your thinking on this subject?

   3 more examples

   But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. Yet this is the level of organisation that does the actual thinking—and is, presumably, the seat of consciousness.

   2013 August 3, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847, archived from the original on 16 May 2024

   When BR "back-checked" (BR's term) the financial results of steam replacement across 49 schemes, where DMUs had been substituted on the London Midland Region, only one was now profitable. BR thinking on such substitutions referred to "betterment", not profit or loss.

   2023 March 8, David Clough, “The long road that led to Beeching”, in RAIL, number 978, page 43

   The current thinking among Donald Trump’s campaign advisers and those close to the former president is that he is not planning on participating in next week’s Republican presidential primary debate, three sources familiar with his plans tell CNN, and has been proposing counterprogramming to the event.

   2023 August 16, Alayna Treene, “Trump plots counterprogramming for GOP primary debate, sources say”, in CNN, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2023

1. gerundparticiplepresentpresent participle and gerund of think

   I'm thinking about inventing a new perpetual-motion machine.

   1 more example

   He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.

   1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter V, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC