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meditate

me·di·tate

UK/ˈmɛ.dɪˌteɪt/ US/ˈmɛdʌˌteɪt/ uncommon obsolete

verb

1.

reflect deeply on a subject

  • “I mulled over the events of the afternoon”
  • “philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years”
  • “The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate”
Synonyms
2.

think intently and at length, as for spiritual purposes

  • “He is meditating in his study”
Synonyms

Origin

First attested in 1560; borrowed from Latin meditātus, perfect active participle of meditor (“to think or reflect upon, consider, design, purpose, intend”) (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), morphologically as if frequentative of medeor (“to heal, to cure, to remedy”); in sense and in form near to Ancient Greek μελετάω (meletáō, “to care for, attend to, study, practise, etc.”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.