pensive
quietly thoughtful, often with sadness
Root
- pend / pens: hang, weigh, lean, or be suspended
Other words with the pend / pens root
- compendium: a concise collection or summary
- depend: to rely on or hang from for support
- dispense: to distribute or give out
- indispensable: absolutely necessary; impossible to do without
- penchant: strong liking or tendency
- pending: not yet decided or settled
- pendulum: swinging weight hung from a fixed point
Pensive thought feels weighed down: the mind is weighing something.
After the rejection letter, she grew pensive but not defeated.
Pensive is not just thinking. It is thought with weight. The face goes still because the mind is holding something heavy.