Wiktionary

ruminate

English

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WOTD – 21 November 2006

Etymology

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1533, "to turn over in the mind," also "to chew cud" (1547), from Latin rūminātus, perfect active participle of rūminārī (“to chew the cud, turn over in the mind”), from rūmen (“the throat, gullet”), of uncertain origin.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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ruminate (third-person singular simple present ruminates, present participle ruminating, simple past and past participle ruminated)

  1. (intransitive) To chew cud. (Said of ruminants.) Involves regurgitating partially digested food from the rumen.
    A camel will ruminate just as a cow will.
  2. (intransitive) To meditate or reflect.
    I didn't answer right away because I needed to ruminate first.
    • 2020 April 8, David Clough, “How the West Coast wiring war was won”, in Rail, page 59:
      Meanwhile, the MoT had itself also been ruminating on options for the northern half of the route.
  3. (transitive) To meditate or ponder over; to muse on.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of ruminate
infinitive (to) ruminate
present tense past tense
1st-person singular ruminate ruminated
2nd-person singular ruminate, ruminatest† ruminated, ruminatedst†
3rd-person singular ruminates, ruminateth† ruminated
plural ruminate
subjunctive ruminate ruminated
imperative ruminate —
participles ruminating ruminated

†Archaic or obsolete.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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ruminate (not comparable)

  1. (botany) Having a hard albumen penetrated by irregular channels filled with softer matter, as the nutmeg and the seeds of the North American papaw.
    a ruminate endosperm

See also

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Further reading

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Verb

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ruminate

  1. inflection of ruminare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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ruminate f pl

  1. feminine plural of ruminato

Anagrams

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Latin

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Participle

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rūmināte

  1. vocative masculine singular of rūminātus
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