How to Use pensive in a Sentence

pensive

adjective

• The child sat by himself, looking pensive.
• There will be pensive looks out at the horizon, where the sharks are.
  — Jonas Shaffer, baltimoresun.com, 29 June 2017
• The guys look pensive as the producers roll out clips of the wives fighting.
  — Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Oct. 2021
• The statue has his arms folded and one hand on his chin in a pensive mood.
  — James Weber, The Enquirer, 6 May 2023
• On the way to his car after the game, Baarns was pensive.
  — Kurt Streeter, New York Times, 6 June 2018
• Levin is long and thin, with an oval face, and a pensive manner.
  — Christopher Borrelli, chicagotribune.com, 7 June 2019
• Buttigieg said ending with a pensive close-up on the mayor’s face.
  — NBC News, 6 Nov. 2019
• Something about the scale of the imagery used in his education did not sit well with the pensive teen.
  — Keyaira Boone, Essence, 20 Mar. 2022
• But that too turns pensive, and the clock returns to business with the opening music.
  — New York Times, 22 Apr. 2020
• At least the postgame locker room, where his smart and pensive answers the past month have brought perspective and calm to the team.
  — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 25 Feb. 2018
• But, in the days that followed, Quichotte was pensive and sad.
  — Salman Rushdie, The New Yorker, 22 July 2019
• Between them stands a woman in a pensive pose, and on the left side of the trio is a smaller standing figure.
  — Teju Cole, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2023
• The former made for a neat closure; the latter provides a more open, pensive end.
  — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 11 Oct. 2019
• This is a book that is grave and pensive, but always engaging.
  — Matt Gallagher, WSJ, 20 Sep. 2017
• Her face is indeed long and pensive, and her smoker’s voice is as dry as her wit.
  — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 1 Mar. 2021
• The front of the record is much more theatrical and pensive compared to the handful of flaring trap bangers that shape up its ending.
  — Thania Garcia, Variety, 16 Oct. 2023
• Carter and her band deftly recast the song as a pensive ballad that exudes a melancholic air.
  — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Sep. 2023
• Clothes must be returned to the closet and the rooms tidied up, after which the family spends a poignant and pensive night.
  — Joe Morgenstern, WSJ, 21 Apr. 2022
• We take in the synchronized swimming of sardines and the pensive patrol of a leopard shark.
  — Roger Rosenblatt, Time, 5 Oct. 1998
• The film serves as a pensive meditation on how his time there as a child has affected his adult life.
  — Mike Barnes, The Hollywood Reporter, 14 Dec. 2022
• The statue depicts a pensive Marx in a frock coat stepping forward with his left foot.
  — Deutsche Welle, USA TODAY, 13 Apr. 2018
• The dripping leaves and brilliant colors of fall are pensive, peaceful.
  — Matt Wyatt, San Antonio Express-News, 1 Dec. 2021
• With its dreamlike blues and grays, Sell By looks more pensive than gloomy.
  — Beandrea July, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 July 2019
• His lustrous sound and tenderness were ideal for the pensive passages of the slow movement.
  — Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 26 May 2017
• On the sideline, Raiders coach Brooks Bollinger was pensive.
  — Andy Greder, Twin Cities, 3 June 2017
• Gomez's vocals are creatively chopped and layered to give it a pensive tone.
  — Raisa Bruner, Time, 5 June 2017
• Yet another showed a close-up of a black man and a baboon with pensive expressions.
  — Breanna Edwards, The Root, 13 Oct. 2017
• The last image shows a pensive Zuckerberg approaching a gym mat.
  — Elizabeth Napolitano, CBS News, 8 May 2023
• The star stands with a pensive look on his face in blue pants and a flowing white top with pink accents, including a collar.
  — Rachel Desantis, PEOPLE.com, 23 Mar. 2022
• Eakins might have pushed his look to an extreme, so some scholars have seen the figure as sad, pensive, and spent.
  — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 12 June 2021

Last Updated: 27 Mar 2024