meditate

verb med·i·tate \ ˈme-də-ˌtāt \

|Updated on: 9 Aug 2018

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Examples: meditate in a Sentence

Definition of meditate

meditated; meditating

intransitive verb

1 : to engage in contemplation or reflection

He meditated long and hard before announcing his decision.

2 : to engage in mental exercise (such as concentration on one's breathing or repetition of a mantra) for the purpose of reaching a heightened level of spiritual awareness

transitive verb

1 : to focus one's thoughts on : reflect on or ponder over

He was meditating his past achievements.

2 : to plan or project in the mind : intend, purpose

He was meditating revenge.

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meditator

play \-ˌtā-tər\ noun

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Examples of meditate in a Sentence

He meditates for an hour every morning.
I've been meditating a career change for months.

Recent Examples of meditate from the Web

One answer is that their 25-year-old coach, a former Buddhist monk, reportedly taught the boys to meditate, to help slow their breathing and quiet their nerves.

— jennifer breheny wallace, WSJ, "Thai Cave Rescue Highlights the Value of Teaching Children to Meditate," 13 July 2018
Jantawong, once trapped himself, is credited for teaching the team to meditate to help them stay calm during their entombment.

— ellen mcgirt, Fortune, "What's Next For The Rescued Thai Soccer Team?," 10 July 2018
There is a certain art to sitting down—even in front of a screen—and spending a few minutes meditating on a grassy knoll in England, or joining a stranger on a stroll through Tokyo just as cherry blossoms begin to bloom.

— arielle pardes, WIRED, "In the Age of Despair, Find Comfort on the ‘Slow Web’," 8 July 2018
Forti sat in the front row with her eyes closed, meditating.

— susan svrluga, Washington Post, "Less cramming. More Frisbee. At Yale, students learn how to live the good life," 12 May 2018
Back in 1952, President Harry S. Truman declared that the American people should spend one day a year praying or meditating on their faith.

— refinery29.com, "Why Thursday Is Your Chance To Get More Spiritual," 1 May 2018
To celebrate Indianness is to meditate on a disaster story; and because that disaster continues, what is there to celebrate?

— The Economist, "Tommy Orange’s debut novel is a work of defiance and recovery," 5 July 2018
Leave it to Oprah to inspire everyone, including Lohan, to start meditating daily.

— alessandra rincón, Billboard, "5 Things We Learned From Lindsay Lohan's 'New York Times' Profile," 26 June 2018
The head jail nurse, Sandy Carter, told reporters Rajneesh sometimes watched TV and would bow his head and meditate. 2.

— anna douglas, charlotteobserver, "He was captured in the middle of the night on a Charlotte runway. Now it's on Netflix. | Charlotte Observer," 23 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'meditate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Origin and Etymology of meditate

Latin meditatus, past participle of meditari, frequentative of medēri to remedy — more at medical

NEW! Time Traveler

First Known Use: 1560

in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1

See Words from the same year

meditate Synonyms

Synonyms

chew over, cogitate, consider, contemplate, debate, deliberate, entertain, eye, kick around, mull (over), perpend, ponder, pore (over), question, revolve, ruminate, study, think (about or over), turn, weigh, wrestle (with);

Near Antonyms

disregard, ignore, overlook, slight;

dismiss, pooh-pooh (also pooh), reject;

analyze, explore, review;

conclude, reason;

second-guess, speculate (about);

brood (about or over), dwell (on or upon), fixate (on or upon), fret (about or over), obsess (about or over);

believe, conceive, opine;

absorb, assimilate, digest, drink (in);

Phrases

beat one's brains out (about), chew on, cudgel one's brains (about), look at;

Synonym Discussion of meditate

ponder, meditate, muse, ruminate mean to consider or examine attentively or deliberately. ponder implies a careful weighing of a problem or, often, prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter.