contemplative — English Dictionary

Adjective

1. Inclined to contemplate; introspective and thoughtful; meditative.

   Examples

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   Compared with the greatest poets, he may be said to be the poet of unpoetical natures, possessed of quiet and contemplative tastes. But unpoetical natures are precisely those which require poetic cultivation. This cultivation Wordsworth is much more fitted to give, than poets who are intrinsically far more poets than he.

2. Pertaining to a religious contemplative, or a contemplative religious orders, especially the Roman Catholic varieties.

   Examples

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   Whether the nuns of yore, being of a submissive rather than a stiff-necked generation, habitually bent their contemplative heads to avoid collision with the beams in the low ceilings of the many chambers of their House [...] may be matters of interest to its haunting ghosts (if any), but constitute no item in Miss Twinkleton's half-yearly accounts.

3. Relating to, or having the power of, contemplation.

   Examples

   contemplative faculties

4. In a phase of mental activity in which one begins to recognize and acknowledge the maladaptiveness of someone's behavior (such as one's own, or that of a family member or friend); usually with reference to substance use.

Noun

1. Someone who has dedicated themselves to religious or philosophical contemplation.

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   Like the white page that surrounds the darkness of each letter you are reading here, eternity surrounds each heartbeat, and as the contemplative watches his breath, he can move out of time through the doorway which opens in the interval between each heartbeat.

   The contemplative must not expect exotic feelings, visions or heavenly voices; these did not come from God but from his own fevered imagination and would merely distract him from his true objective [...].

Adjective

1. deeply or seriously thoughtful

   Synonyms

   broodingbroodymeditativemusingpensiveponderingreflectiveruminative

   Examples

   Byron lives on not only in his poetry, but also in his creation of the ‘Byronic hero’ - the persona of a brooding melancholy young man

Noun

1. a person devoted to the contemplative life

   Broader terms

   actordoerworker