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Brooding vs Pensive - What's the difference?

brooding | pensive |

As adjectives the difference between brooding and pensive

is that brooding is broody; incubating eggs by sitting on them while pensive is having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.

As a verb brooding

is present participle of lang=en.

As a noun brooding

is a spell of brooding; the time when someone broods.

brooding

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • (of a bird) Broody; incubating eggs by sitting on them.
    • A brooding hen can be aggressive.
  • Deeply or seriously thoughtful.
    • You like T. S. Eliot's "The Waste Land"? You must be so brooding and deep .

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • A spell of brooding; the time when someone broods.
  • * {{quote-news, year=2009, date=June 22, author=Jon Caramanica, title=Once-Dreamy Indie Rockers, Masking Hurt With High-Gloss Sheen, work=New York Times citation
    • , passage=The lyrics are different: gone are the dreamy, un-self-conscious proclamations of affection from the EP (which was reissued with additional tracks), replaced with vividly dark broodings , thick with doubt and fear.}}

    pensive

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Having the appearance of deep, often melancholic, thinking.
  • Looking thoughtful, especially from sadness.
  • * 1748 . David Hume. Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. ยง 4.
    • Abstruse thought and profound researches I prohibit, and will severely punish, by the pensive melancholy which they introduce

    Derived terms

    * pensively * pensiveness

    Anagrams

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