Pensive

(pronounced pen-sive) adjective

Definition

1. engaged in deep or serious thought; dreamily, wistfully, or meditatively thoughtful. 2. expressing or showing deep (and often sad or melancholy) thoughtfulness.

Main Example

Take a look at the recent Time cover picture of President Obama, declaring him “Person of the Year.” Notice how the photographer, by deft use of lighting and positioning of the head, has made his subject appear deep in thought, looking pensive.

Workplace Examples

For the last couple of days, the boss has been very different from his usual boisterous, forceful, go-get-’em style. Seems continually lost in thought...kind of pensive. Any idea what’s bothering him?
Yep, I too was surprised at Helen not asking any questions during the meeting this morning, but when you say she sat there pensively, I have to disagree with you. In my view, her expression was one of irritation and disbelief.

Other Examples

this author admiring the pensive look in the large, brown eyes of his Labrador retriever Buddy
on returning from lunch, somebody saying: “While at the restaurant, I couldn’t help staring at this woman who was sitting at a distant table because she looked so very sad, and lonely, and brooding. There was such an air of pensiveness about her.”
much to the annoyance and disappointment of his excited family members, someone on his 80^th birthday locked in a pensive mood, reflecting sadly about his many close friends who had died in their 30s and 40s, while still in the prime of their lives
turning to a Rembrandt that depicts a seated, naked woman, the curator explaining the subject’s “beautiful, pensive expression” to a CBS interviewer by pointing out that a person being painted would often get bored during a long sitting and thus enter a state of deep and serious thought
in the movie “Chariots of Fire,” winner of the 1981 Best Picture Oscar, Vangelis’s music helping endow that opening scene of runners on a beach with an aura of pensiveness