Word.ws English Dictionary

ruminative

Syllables: ru·min·a·tive/ˈruməˌneɪdɪv/

ruminative adjective: causing rumination or prone to it; thoughtful.

Adjective

ruminative (comparative more ruminative, superlative most ruminative)

  1. Causing rumination or prone to it; thoughtful.
    • They waited expectantly while he directed a ruminative yawn toward the white smiling moon.1922, F. Scott Fitzgerald, chapter 5, in The Beautiful and Damned, archived from the original on 05 Mar 2011
    • ‘It happened,’ returned the man, with a ruminative air, as he drew his right hand across his chin, and dipped the other in the pocket of his rough outer coat, ‘it happened somewhere about here as I reckon. I don’t think it can have been a mile from here.’1864, Charles Dickens, chapter 12, in Our Mutual Friend, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2011
  2. Relating to or characteristic of ruminants; chewing the cud.

Examples of ruminative in a sentence

  • The ruminative 'cello uttered two phrases of its own and then began a dialogue with the viola.1970, Patrick O'Brian, Master and Commander:
  • I found that the chore of reorganizing the artifacts of my professional life was pleasantly ruminative.2010, Diane Ravitch, The Death and Life of the Great American School System, page 1:

Synonyms of ruminative

Antonyms

Forms of ruminative

comparativemore ruminative
superlativemost ruminative

Origin of ruminative

From ruminate + -ive.

Words formed from ruminative

Questions about ruminative

What does ruminative mean?
Ruminative means causing rumination or prone to it; thoughtful.
How do you use ruminative in a sentence?
The ruminative 'cello uttered two phrases of its own and then began a dialogue with the viola.
What part of speech is ruminative?
Ruminative is an adjective.
How do you pronounce ruminative?
Ruminative is pronounced /ˈruməˌneɪdɪv/.

Words near ruminative in the dictionary

  1. ruminatingly
  2. ruminatings
  3. rumination
  4. rumination syndrome
  5. ruminations
  6. ruminative
  7. ruminatively
  8. ruminator
  9. ruminators
  10. ruminatory
  11. ruminitis

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ruminative (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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