as in melancholy
given to or marked by long, quiet thinking
he was clearly in a musing mood, and did not feel like talking just then
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Recent Examples of musing
Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2025
Yet the essayistic musings in Sonia and Sunny read more like armchair postcolonialism than a major writer laying muscular claim to the novel as form.
—Sanjena Sathian, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2025
Here and nowhere else, Holland treats Kafka’s oeuvre not as abstract fodder for pithy musing, but as texts which were published at a real point in history, that came from the mind of a person and not a divine conduit.
—Sam Bodrojan, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2025
The debate over whether algorithms can ever be truly impartial has been simmering for years; what’s new is the urgency to move from philosophical musing to enforceable standards.
—Jason Snyder, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for musing
Noun
That’s one philosophical musing.
—Blake Toppmeyer, USA TODAY, 2 Oct. 2025
Yet the essayistic musings in Sonia and Sunny read more like armchair postcolonialism than a major writer laying muscular claim to the novel as form.
—Sanjena Sathian, Vulture, 23 Sep. 2025
Here and nowhere else, Holland treats Kafka’s oeuvre not as abstract fodder for pithy musing, but as texts which were published at a real point in history, that came from the mind of a person and not a divine conduit.
—Sam Bodrojan, IndieWire, 5 Sep. 2025
The debate over whether algorithms can ever be truly impartial has been simmering for years; what’s new is the urgency to move from philosophical musing to enforceable standards.
—Jason Snyder, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for musing
Recent Examples of Synonyms for musing
Adjective
-
The melancholy truth is that things have sunk into a morass of demoralization and low standards, with journalism inhabiting the poverty sector among the disciplines, and this at a time when communications nationally and internationally have reached an apex of urgency and complexity.—
David Wingrave,
Harpers Magazine,
24 Oct. 2025
-
The soundscape’s melancholy unease conveys a sense of people persisting against the chaos of the world.—
Bilge Ebiri,
Vulture,
23 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
Just like in mindfulness meditation, simply observe your mental processes without judgment.—
Big Think,
Big Think,
5 Nov. 2025
-
Weil argues that following his anti-inflammatory food pyramid and taking up practices such as meditation, yoga, and tai chi can help prevent and treat these diseases of chronic inflammation.—
Jason Liebowitz,
The Atlantic,
4 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
The Forest owner has been pondering his options That is not unusual — the Greek shipping magnate always likes to have a plan B in place.—
Paul Taylor,
New York Times,
16 Oct. 2025
-
That’s 16 days of public silence and private plotting — 16 days of preparing for a case management conference and pondering motions and strategizing for the discovery process and delving into every facet of this year-long case that has no end in sight.—
Jon Wilner,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
16 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
The guest experience is elevated by thoughtful details such as sunset happy hours and chocolate carts.—
Taylor McIntyre,
Travel + Leisure,
5 Nov. 2025
-
But some more thoughtful objections — see journalist Van Lathan’s October appearance on The Ringer podcast The Big Picture — take issue with the ways in which Perfidia is sexualized by two white men, DiCaprio and Sean Penn’s characters, the latter a neo-Nazi.—
Mikey O'Connell,
HollywoodReporter,
5 Nov. 2025
Noun
-
Both zeroed in on age-old scales and harmonies, extracted them from their usual contexts, and transformed them into objects of contemplation.—
Alex Ross,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
-
Still, this isn’t about contemplation or quiet reflection.—
Valerie Mesa,
PEOPLE,
29 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Now Guillermo del Toro — cinema’s biggest proponent of big-screen fantasy — has completed his two-and-a-half-hour version, an epic adaptation with a blockbuster budget, a stamp of auteurship, and decades spent ruminating on the relevance of Shelley’s text in the modern era.—
Rory Doherty,
Vulture,
20 Oct. 2025
-
These include identifying specific stressors, breaking large problems into manageable steps, and taking concrete action rather than ruminating on difficulties.—
Ashley Lutz,
Fortune,
10 Oct. 2025
Adjective
-
As the sole music category at the moment, the batch of nominees is reflective of the launchpad TikTok has provided for new artists.—
Larisha Paul,
Rolling Stone,
3 Nov. 2025
-
The Johnson County government website says to incorporate reflective elements into costumes.—
Joseph Hernandez,
Kansas City Star,
31 Oct. 2025
Noun
-
For the 100 cemetery workers tasked with maintaining Père Lachaise, the reverie at Morrison’s grave turned into a battle.—
David Kushner,
Rolling Stone,
20 Oct. 2025
-
Burnett was content to mine references from her own Depression-era youth; her famous maid character, the Charwoman, who became something of a show mascot, harked back to Chaplin’s Little Tramp, wearing a rumpled outfit and performing silent reveries.—
Rachel Syme,
New Yorker,
29 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Musing.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/musing. Accessed 9 Nov. 2025.
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