RUMINATIVE Synonyms: 49 Similar and Opposite Words

ruminative

adjective

as in melancholy

given to or marked by long, quiet thinking a ruminative man, who contributed to discussions only after he had completely thought things through

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Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of ruminative But the book’s ruminative watchfulness is unsuccessfully conjugated in this overly sedate play with music, which has the feel of a song cycle, though sung by the fine cast with gorgeous, lonely sorrow. — Brian Seibert, New Yorker, 19 June 2026 Their ruminative hush sets them apart in an era of instant-gratification drops. — Kieran Press-Reynolds, Pitchfork, 15 June 2026 But as is fitting for a filmmaker pushing 80, awestruck innocence now co-exists with a more ruminative maturity, especially when touching on the secrecy, manipulation and deception of governmental power. — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 9 June 2026 Lily Allen, Jack Whitehall and Timothy Spall also star in Tina Gharavi's SXSW London opener, which refashions Woolf's diffuse, ruminative feminist novel into a straightforwardly inspirational tale. — Guy Lodge, Variety, 3 June 2026 And keep in mind, Dosa’s film is a ruminative and poetic love letter to a glacier, so literally and figuratively super slow moving is the perfect rollout for a film like this. — Brian Welk, IndieWire, 3 June 2026 But nearly ten years on, as the world order unravels, the exhibition’s ruminative posture comes across as toothless and unfinished. — Horace D. Ballard, Artforum, 22 Apr. 2026 Documentarians Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, who also gave us the ruminative Nick Cave portrait 20,000 Days on Earth (2014), use this as an elaborate framing device, the sort of oddball choice that doesn’t feel necessary yet also doesn’t detract from the goal at hand. — David Fear, Rolling Stone, 26 Jan. 2026 Scarlet feels like his biggest movie yet, a ruminative war picture that stages medieval battles and pitches its characters through the mortal coil and back. — Eric Vilas-Boas, Vulture, 1 Oct. 2025

Recent Examples of Synonyms for ruminative

Adjective

There is romance and melancholy, playfulness and despair, all happening at once.

— PhotoVogue, Vogue, 17 Sep. 2026
That O’Flynn’s newfound fame has coincided with her starring role in this gentle, melancholy wonder of a movie is a fitting, if unplanned, convergence.

— Alison Willmore, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of melancholy

Adjective

The anxieties surrounding data privacy, algorithmic bias and the fundamental shift in how students learn are valid and require serious, thoughtful attention.

— Erin Mote, Forbes.com, 15 Sep. 2026
Someone who reminds a likely very jaded and fickle crowd of editors, buyers, and industry observers that fashion can still be thoughtful, genuine, and most importantly, fun.

— Bianca Betancourt, CNN Money, 15 Sep. 2026

Definition of thoughtful

Adjective

Anti-reflective coatings can also be incorporated where required.

— Prabhat Ranjan Mishra, Interesting Engineering, 17 Sep. 2026
Leaders must mediate the conversation and create an environment of true collaboration that allows for active discussion, where people are allowed to disagree in order to develop an answer based on that and reflective of the conversation.

— Expert Panel®, Forbes.com, 16 Sep. 2026

Definition of reflective

Adjective

And in Walworth County, travelers will find more of that contemplative, fall experience, according to Emma Lowecki, director of guest experience at The Belfry House.

— Stacey Leasca, Travel + Leisure, 14 Sep. 2026
Fernández’s adaptation is anxious to turn tragedy into a sermon, offering theatergoers moral solace where Sophocles leaves his audience in a contemplative state of stunned silence.

— Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of contemplative

Adjective

He’s taken by the meditative musical vibrations, and he’s even framed against a glass window that appears to shimmer, as though the rusty gears of his mind and heart are forced to rotate and a power a bulb somewhere off screen.

— Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 11 Sep. 2026
Dash, 2026, the forty-seven-minute, two-channel essay-film at the project’s core, is filled with quiet, almost meditative scenes of machines tilling the land that initially conjure a faux-pastoral aesthetic register.

— Pablo Larios, Artforum, 1 Sep. 2026

Definition of meditative

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ruminations

ruminative

rummage

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“Ruminative.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/ruminative. Accessed 22 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of ruminative

adjective

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