Word.ws English Dictionary

musing

musing is the present participle and gerund of muse.

Meaning of muse

Verb

muse (third-person singular simple present muses, present participle musing, simple past and past participle mused)

  1. (intransitive) To become lost in thought, to ponder.
  2. (transitive) To say (something) with due consideration or thought.
    • When I asked about her affinity for playing self-obsessed artists, O’Hara mused: “Maybe I’m just trying to get it out of my system. I’m so afraid to be like that.”2026 January 30, Judy Berman, “Catherine O’Hara Portrayed the Vain and Delusional With a Radical Lack of Vanity”, in TIME, archived from the original on 01 Feb 2026
  3. (transitive) To think on; to meditate on.
    • Come, then, expressive Silence, muse his praise.c. 1726, James Thomson, Hymn
  4. (transitive) To wonder at.
    • Muse not that I thus suddenly proceed; for what I will, I will, and there an end.c. 1590–1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...

See all 13 meanings of muse

Adjective

musing (comparative more musing, superlative most musing)

  1. Absorbed in thought; contemplative

Noun

musing (plural musings)

  1. thought, meditation, contemplation
    • daydreaming or imaginative musings
    Synonyms:
    consideration

Synonyms of musing

Forms of musing

Adjective
comparativemore musing
superlativemost musing
Noun
pluralmusings

Words formed from musing

Questions about musing

What does musing mean?
Musing means absorbed in thought; contemplative.
What is musing the present participle and gerund of?
Musing is the present participle and gerund of muse.
What part of speech is musing?
Musing can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near musing in the dictionary

  1. Musil
  2. Musilesque
  3. musimon
  4. musimons
  5. Musina
  6. musing
  7. musingly
  8. musings
  9. musion
  10. musions
  11. musique

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: musing (page history and authors); muse (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-musing.ogg.

Cite this entry: “musing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/musing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.