Aldous HuxleyE. A. Weeks
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When you ruminate, you chew something over, either literally or figuratively. Literal rumination may seem a little gross to humans, but to cows, chewing your cud (partially digested food brought up from the stomach for another chew) is just a natural part of life. Figurative ruminating is much more palatable to humans; that kind of deep, meditative thought is often deemed quite a worthy activity. The verb ruminate has described metaphorical chewing over since the early 1500s and actual chewing since later that same century. Our English word comes from and shares the meanings of the Latin verb ruminari (“to chew the cud” or “muse upon”), which in turn comes from rumen, the Latin name for the first stomach compartment of ruminant animals (that is, creatures like cows that chew their cud).
Examples of ruminate in a Sentence
Joseph Hudak, Rolling Stone, 8 June 2026
But Yi has ruminated on these interconnections for more than two decades, making visible (and, sometimes, odorous) the systems around us that are microscopic, impermanent, or technologically abstract, often questioning our discomfort with them.
—Jacqui Palumbo, CNN Money, 29 May 2026
Let’s ruminate on that precept of aiming to use AI to disprove or find a counterexample, rather than solely being used to prove something outright.
—Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
Allow Oli Kay, Michael Cox, Sarah Shephard, Stu James and Tim Spiers to ruminate on the highs and lows of the campaign.
—Sarah Shephard, New York Times, 24 May 2026
See All Example Sentences for ruminate
Cite this Entry
“Ruminate.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ruminate. Accessed 9 Jun. 2026.
Copy CitationKids Definition
ruminate
verb
Medical Definition
ruminate
intransitive verb
