Other forms: contemplated, contemplating, contemplates
To contemplate something is to turn it over slowly and deeply in your mind. Not deciding — considering.
It has two flavours. One is practical, so contemplating a move or contemplating retirement means seriously considering it, and it takes a verb ending in -ing. The other is meditative, and contemplating a painting or a view means looking at it at length and letting it work on you. The noun contemplation belongs to the second, and contemplative describes a person or a religious order given to it.
1verbcontemplateTo think about something seriously as a possibility.
“She was contemplating leaving the job.”
2verblookTo look at or consider something thoughtfully and at length.
“He sat contemplating the fire.”
Also accepted in games: ponder
To contemplate is to gaze. Latin contemplor meant to observe, to survey, to look at something at length, and it shares its middle with template.
Latin
contemplātus
English, today
contemplate
Built from
1590s; Latin contemplātus, the perfect active participle of contemplor (“to observe, survey, gaze (at), contemplate”), see -ate. See also template.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA