think
cogitate
deliberate
meditate
muse
ponder
reason
reflect
ruminate
speculate
throng
imply a lack of strength or vigor: a skinny weakling who took a bodybuilding course. Scrawny means small and stringy, lean, bony, and undernourished: scrawny urchins scrambling for coins. Scrawny is often applied to animals as well as humans: a scrawny chicken, too tough to eat. Wiry is usually used of persons, meaning thin but tough and sinewy. It describes one who is quite slim but deceptively strong: a wiry little man, as plucky and pugnacious as a bantam rooster. See BONY, LANKY, SUPPLE.
Antonyms: fat.
These words all mean to set the mind to work in order to seek a better understanding of something, solve a problem, or get at the truth. Think is the general word, and can refer to any use of the intellect to arrive at ideas or conclusions. One can think profoundly or superficially, seriously or frivolously: to think about whether man’s fate is determined by his own free will or by the force of circumstances; She thought about dyeing her hair red. Cogitate is a rather pompously formal word that means to think seriously or continuously; it is often used jestingly: The infant seemed to be cogitating on the quality and depth of his navel. However, it is occasionally used soberly about a baffling problem: tax specialists cogitating about how to simplify instructions to the taxpayer.
Meditate, muse, reflect, and ruminate mean to think in a contemplative or leisurely manner. Meditate is the most general of these words, and implies a serious and extended period of concentration: The author meditated on the theme of his book before sketching out the plot and characterization. Muse suggests a dreamlike, aimless, or conjectural succession of thoughts. [She mused about whether her husband would notice her new dress; He mused over what he would do if he were suddenly to inherit a million dollars.] Reflect means to look back in a thoughtful way over what has happened: an old man reflecting on the changes that had taken place in the world since his youth. But reflect may also be used of any intellectual review: to reflect on the causes of urban rioting. In its basic literal sense ruminate is applied to certain animals and means to chew the cud (food previously swallowed and regurgitated). Analogously, ruminate as here considered means to turn a thought over and over in the mind: a losing candidate ruminating on the cause of his defeat.
Deliberate and ponder emphasize the slow, careful process of weighing possibilities or alternatives; deliberate stresses the slowness, and ponder the weighing of possibilities. Whereas deliberate suggests a methodical, rational process of decision-making, ponder points to the solemnness and difficulty of the problem, to which there may be no solution. [The jury deliberated four hours before recessing for lunch; The president pondered the problem of how to maintain national security without compromising individual freedom.]
To reason is to make logical or empirical generalizations based on evidence: The district attorney reasoned that the suspect’s attempt to flee was ground for presuming guilt. Speculate, on the other hand, means to theorize or conjecture on the basis of little or no evidence: At present scientists can only speculate on the nature and extent of life outside our solar system. See consider, examine, idea, imagination,
MIND, OPINION, STUDY, SUPPOSE.
These words refer to large gatherings, especially of people. Throng and host are the most formal of these. Throng emphasizes a group in which
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the members are pressed together in a crush: a throng of late Christmas shoppers fighting each other to the display tables of the department store. The word can also suggest a mass of tightly grouped people moving with difficulty in the same direction: a throng of worshipers who followed the religious procession down the narrow cobbled streets of the village. Host, by contrast, suggests an archaic or Biblical tone; here the group may well be spread out in space. The word may also be descriptive of an army or armed group of people: the heavenly host of angels who appeared to the shepherds near Bethlehem; a host of people spread out on the hillside in all directions; a ragged host of militia, falling before the gunfire of well-hidden American rebels. The word can also suggest any vast group of things: a host of reasons for disbanding the cavalry.
Crowd and mob both suggest sizable collections of people, but both are more informal than the previous pair. Like throng, crowd can suggest congestion but is even more emphatic about disorder within the group: a confused crowd that gathered on the sidewalk to watch the burning house. The word, however, is used informally to describe large audiences of any kind, even the most orderly: the large crowd that had turned out to hear the pianist’s farewell performance. Mob, by contrast, stresses disorder in a crowd possessed by unruly or angry emotions and implies the erupting of potential violence or a state of riot: a crowd that turned into a rampaging mob when it learned that the boy injured by the hit-and-run driver had died before reaching the hospital. As a mere hyperbole, the word can be used informally for any great number: mobs of friends who came to our open-house party.
Multitude, while not sharing the quaint or old-fashioned sound of host, gives an elevated tone in referring to an extremely large number; when the word applies to people, it specifically implies their being spread out through space: the multitude gathered in Times Square to see in the new year. Like host, the word can also apply to any great amount: presenting a multitude of reasons for reopening the case. Horde refers specifically to a crowd or mob that is threatening, unkempt, or unpleasant in some way: a horde of hungry peasants who gathered before the palace. In this context, the word suggests disorganization, fierce emotion, and a motley or ragged array of people. Horde can also refer to a pack or swar m , as of animals or insects: a horde of mosquitoes that circled the night light; a horde of rats. Most specifically, and with a less negative tone, the word can refer to a nomadic tribe or army: the horde of Berbers who camped for the night just outside the desert town. See GROUP, MEETING, PEOPLE.
These words refer to sending a hand-released projectile through the air by a swing of the arm. Throw carries the fewest implications about the manner in which the act is done or its emotional context: taking careful aim before he threw', throwing handfuls of grass in all directions. Hurl suggests throwing something with considerable force or ferocity, heave the lifting and throwing of something quite heavy: hurling stones and curses at their helpless victim; seizing a boulder and heaving it at the advancing column of men. Cast, pitch, and toss, by contrast, suggest less force and greater swiftness in throwing lighter objects: pitching pennies into an upturned hat; casting his line downstream and reeling it in against the /current; lazily tossing darts at a picture of his political opponent. Cast has fallen into disuse except in the context of fishing and in certain stock phrases such as casting a net, casting dice, casting bread
throng
(continued)
crowd
horde
host
mob
multitude
throw
bowl
cast
fling
heave
hurl
pitch
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