Other forms: pondering, ponders, pondered
To ponder is to turn a question over slowly in your mind. Ponder the question, ponder over it, worth pondering.
The slowness is the point: pondering is deliberate and unhurried, which is why it suits questions with no quick answer. It can take a direct object or over. It is slightly literary. Note that ponder comes from the Latin for weighing, the same root as pound and ponderous — so to ponder is to weigh a thing in the mind, which is exactly the image English still uses.
1verbponderTo turn a question over slowly in your mind.
“He sat by the window, pondering what to do with his life.”
ponder is a slow thinking.
Also accepted in games: contemplate, mull over
Latin ponderare means to weigh, from pondus, a weight. Ponderous, pound and preponderance come from the same weighing.
Proto-Indo-European
*(s)pend-
Latin
ponderāre — to weigh, ponder
Old French
ponderer — to weigh, balance, ponder
Middle English
ponderen
English, today
ponder
Built from
From Middle English ponderen, from Old French ponderer (“to weigh, balance, ponder”) from Latin ponderāre (“to weigh, ponder”), from pondus (“weight”), from pendere (“to weigh”); see pendent and pound.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA