mindmap root((沉思)) ponder implies a careful weighing of a problem or prolonged inconclusive thinking about a matter: ~ed at length the various recourses open to him. meditate implies a definite focusing of one's thoughts on something so as to understand it deeply: the sight of ruins prompted her to ~ upon human vanity. muse suggests a more or less focused and persistent but languid and inconclusive turning over in the mind as if in a dream, a fancy, or a remembrance: ~d upon the adventures of the heroines of gothic novels. ruminate implies going over the same matter in one's thoughts again and again but suggests little of either purposive thinking or rapt absorption: the product of fifty years of ~ing on the meaning of life.