ponder

From Middle English ponderen, from Old French ponderer (“to weigh, balance, ponder”) from Latin ponderāre (“to weigh, ponder”), from pondus (“weight”), from pendere (“to weigh”); see pendent and pound.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɒn.də(ɹ)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɑn.dɚ/

• Audio (US):

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• Rhymes: -ɒndə(ɹ)

ponder (third-person singular simple present ponders, present participle pondering, simple past and past participle pondered)

1. To wonder, think of deeply.
2. To consider (something) carefully and thoroughly.

   Synonyms: chew over, mull over; see also Thesaurus:ponder

   I have spent days pondering the meaning of life.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 4:26:

     Ponder the path of thy feet.

   • a. 1709 (date delivered), William Beveridge, “Sermon LXXXV. Repentance, a Certain, and the Only Method of Obtaining Pardon.”, in The Works of the Right Reverend Father in God, Dr. William Beveridge, Late Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. […], volume II, London: […] William Taylor, […], published 1720, →OCLC, page 69:

     [A]lthough thou beeſt blameleſs and unſpotted as to thy outvvard Life and Converſation, ſo that none can ſay, black is thine Eye, as to any groſs Sin; yet knovv, that God pondereth thy Heart, and ranſacketh every Corner of thy Soul, and obſerves the Motions of thoſe very Luſts that vvar vvithin thee, and prevail againſt thee.

3. (obsolete) To weigh.

ponder (plural ponders)

1. (colloquial) A period of deep thought.

   I lit my pipe and had a ponder about it, but reached no definite conclusion.

• “ponder”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “ponder”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Penrod, podner, proned

From Latin ponderis, pondere, etc., inflected forms of pondus (“weight”).^[1]

ponder (plural ponders)

1. (glassblowing) A fourteenth-century unit of glass.

   Coordinate terms: shev, wyspe