thought

plural thoughts · alternative archaic thowt · alternative nonstandard thaught · alternative archaic thot

1. countableA representation created in the mind without the use of one's faculties of vision, sound, smell, touch, or taste; an instance of thinking.

   I hate the thought of going back to work Monday morning.

   3 more examples

   The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

   I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.

   1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter VIII, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd., →OCLC

   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

2. uncountableThe operation by which mental activity arise or are manipulated; the process of thinking; the agency by which thinking is accomplished.

   Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom, and no such thing as public liberty without freedom of speech.

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   The only reason some people get lost in thought is because it’s unfamiliar territory.

   a. 1983, Paul Fix (attributed quote)

   What has been especially striking in recent decades, however, is the rise of new outlooks challenging the very idea of a nucleated (if evasive) inner personal identity. … We don't think our thoughts, they think us; we are but the bearers of discourses, our selves are discursive constructs. Within such frames of analysis, any notion of the ascent of selfhood is but idle teleological myth, a humanist hagiography.

   2003, Roy Porter, Flesh in the Age of Reason, Ch.1, at p.14, 15

   Synonyms: thinking

3. countableA way of thinking (associated with a group, nation, region or idea).

   school of thought

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   Traditional eastern thought differs markedly from that of the west.

4. dialectaluncountableAnxiety, distress.

   Which of you by taking thought, can adde one cubite vnto his ſtature?

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 6:27

5. uncountableThe careful consideration of multiple factors; deliberation.

   After much thought, I have decided to stay.

   Synonyms: cogitation, contemplation, deliberation, mulling, musing, pondering, meditation, reflection

6. countableuncountableA very small amount, distance, etc.; a whit or jot.

   'Bide the night at Heriotside,' says he. 'It's a thought out of your way, but it's a comfortable bit.'

   1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

alternative archaic thowt · alternative nonstandard thaught · alternative archaic thot

1. participlepastsimple past and past participle of think

   I'd previously been thought to be a thorough fool.

   1 more example

   Hi! I thought I’d come over and introduce myself. My name’s Chema.