Thinkings

Part of speech: noun, verb

Definitions

1. The process of contemplating or reflecting on ideas and concepts
2. The activity of forming thoughts or opinions through reasoning and consideration
3. Engaging in mental processes to evaluate information and make decisions

Etymology: "Thinkings" is the plural of "thinking," a form that is itself a plain product of English grammar: the verb "think" with the suffix "-ing" added to turn the action into a noun. The noun "thinking" has deep roots, though. Its ancestor was a present participle in Old English, "þenċende," which grew from a Proto-Germanic verb meaning "to think." That same Germanic stem gave modern German "denkend" and Dutch "denkend," both still meaning "thinking," so the word has stayed recognisably the same across the North Sea for more than a thousand years. Plural forms of abstract nouns like this are less common, and they usually appear when speakers want to count separate acts or kinds of reasoning, as in "my thinkings on the matter." Because "thinking" began as a verb form that gradually took on a noun role, the plural simply follows the usual English pattern of adding an "-s."

Synonyms: thoughts, contemplations, reflections, considerations, ideas

Antonyms: ignorance, disregard, neglect, unawareness, thoughtlessness