Mind

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /maɪnd/

Definitions

1. The mental capacity for thinking, understanding, and reasoning ; the act of concentrating or paying attention to something ; the ability to remember or recall information ; to be concerned with or care about something or someone
2. A cognitive faculty enabling thought and awareness ; the state of observing or noticing something actively ; a power to retain past experiences in the memory ; to take care or have regard for a person or task
3. The organ of consciousness allowing thought and reflection ; the act of directing mental effort to an object or task ; the capacity to call back past events or facts ; to worry about or be mindful of an issue or person

Etymology: The most surprising thing about "mind" is that its oldest sense was memory, not thinking. Old English "mynd" and "gemynd" meant "mind, memory," and the word goes back to a Proto-Germanic root meaning "memory, remembrance." Its ancestor reaches further still, to a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to think," which also gave Latin "mens" ("mind, reason") and, through Greek, the word "mantis," originally a seer or prophet. The word's older senses survive in the Germanic family. Old Norse "mynd" meant "image, model," and Swedish "minne" and Danish "minde" still mean "memory" today. Old English also had "myntan," "to intend, determine, resolve," which connects the idea of holding something in the mind with purpose and intention.

Synonyms: brain, intellect, thought, consciousness, reason

Antonyms: ignorance, stupidity, foolishness, carelessness, insanity