Word.ws English Dictionary

penny for your thoughts

UK/ˈpɛn.i fɔː jɔː ˈθɔːts//ˈpɛn.i fɔɹ jʊɹ ˈθɑts/

penny for your thoughts phrase: used to inquire into the thoughts and feelings of another, especially when the person appears pensive or conflicted.

Phrase

penny for your thoughts

  1. (idiomatic) Used to inquire into the thoughts and feelings of another, especially when the person appears pensive or conflicted.
    • One day, as your ladyship was playing on the harpsichord to my master, Mr Jones was sitting in the next room, and methought he looked melancholy. La! says I, Mr Jones, what's the matter? a penny for your thoughts, says I.1749, Henry Fielding, chapter XIV, in The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling, volume II, London: A[ndrew] Millar, […], →OCLC, book IV, page 106
    • As for Harry, he sate in very deep meditation over the scene; and when Mrs. Lambert offered him a penny for his thoughts, he said, “That he thought, Young Norval, Douglas, What-d'ye-call-'em, the fellow in white satin—who looked as old as his mother—was very lucky to be able to distinguish himself...1857–1859, W[illiam] M[akepeace] Thackeray, chapter LIX, in The Virginians. A Tale of the Last Century, volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: Bradbury & Evans, […], published 1858–1859...

Questions about penny for your thoughts

What does penny for your thoughts mean?
Penny for your thoughts means used to inquire into the thoughts and feelings of another, especially when the person appears pensive or conflicted.
What part of speech is penny for your thoughts?
Penny for your thoughts is a phrase.
How do you pronounce penny for your thoughts?
Penny for your thoughts is pronounced /ˈpɛn.i fɔː jɔː ˈθɔːts/ (UK).

Words near penny for your thoughts in the dictionary

  1. penny fall
  2. penny falls
  3. penny farthing
  4. penny farthings
  5. penny for them
  6. penny for your thoughts
  7. penny gaff
  8. penny gaffe
  9. penny gaffes
  10. penny gaffs
  11. penny grass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: penny for your thoughts (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-penny for your thoughts.ogg, en-au-penny for your thoughts.ogg.

Cite this entry: “penny for your thoughts.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/penny_for_your_thoughts. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.