contemplate

First attested in the 1590s; borrowed from Latin contemplātus, the perfect active participle of contemplor (“to observe, survey, gaze (at), contemplate”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix). See also template.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkɑn.təmˌpleɪt/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkɒn.təmˌpleɪt/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: con‧tem‧plate

contemplate (third-person singular simple present contemplates, present participle contemplating, simple past and past participle contemplated)

1. To look at on all sides or in all its aspects; to view or consider with continued attention; to regard with deliberate care; to meditate on; to study, ponder, or consider.
   • 1671, John Milton, “The First Book”, in Paradise Regain’d. A Poem. In IV Books. To which is Added, Samson Agonistes, London: […] J[ohn] M[acock] for John Starkey […], →OCLC, page 1:

     To love, at least contemplate and admire, / What I see excellent.

   • 1818, Lord Byron, “Canto IV”, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. Canto the Fourth, London: John Murray, […], →OCLC, stanza CLVIII:

     We thus dilate / Our spirits to the size of that they contemplate.

2. To consider as a possibility.

   I contemplated doing the project myself, but it would have taken too long.

   • 1793 February 18, Alexander Hamilton, Loans, speech given to the United States House of Representatives:

     There remain some particulars to complete the information contemplated by those resolutions.

   • 1826, James Kent, Commentaries on American Law:

     If a treaty contains any stipulations which contemplate a state of future war.

   • 1953 November, 'Erca', “Ticket Frauds in the East”, in Railway Magazine, page 779:

     In Calcutta, season tickets are issued only for the calendar month, with a different colour for each month, so that this problem does not arise. The merest whisper of an idea to change Bombay to the Calcutta system brought such a howl of protest in the Press, that it was never seriously contemplated.

   • 2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.

• See also Thesaurus:ponder
• (look at): examine

• Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “contemplate”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

contemplate

1. inflection of contemplare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

contemplate f pl

1. feminine plural of contemplato

• completante

contemplāte

1. vocative masculine singular of contemplātus

contemplate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of contemplar combined with te