How to Use pensive in a Sentence

pensive

adjective
  • The child sat by himself, looking pensive.
  • Mashal was tall and stocky, with a gentle, pensive face.
    — Literary Hub, 27 Jan. 2026
  • Levin is long and thin, with an oval face, and a pensive manner.
    — Christopher Borrelli, chicagotribune.com, 7 June 2019
  • There will be pensive looks out at the horizon, where the sharks are.
    — Jonas Shaffer, baltimoresun.com, 29 June 2017
  • Dreher fell into a pensive mood.
    — Robert F. Worth, The Atlantic, 13 Feb. 2026
  • Where once there was stern, pensive faces, now there were smiles, heads tilted back.
    — Daniel Cassady, ARTnews.com, 4 Nov. 2024
  • One shows the face of a pensive Kwak, perhaps lost in thought.
    — Maximilíano Durón, ARTnews.com, 3 Mar. 2025
  • The statue has his arms folded and one hand on his chin in a pensive mood.
    — James Weber, The Enquirer, 6 May 2023
  • Buttigieg said ending with a pensive close-up on the mayor’s face.
    — NBC News, 6 Nov. 2019
  • Her face is indeed long and pensive, and her smoker’s voice is as dry as her wit.
    — E. Alex Jung, Vulture, 1 Mar. 2021
  • The guys look pensive as the producers roll out clips of the wives fighting.
    — Scott D. Pierce, The Salt Lake Tribune, 10 Oct. 2021
  • This is a book that is grave and pensive, but always engaging.
    — Matt Gallagher, WSJ, 20 Sep. 2017
  • But, in the days that followed, Quichotte was pensive and sad.
    — Salman Rushdie, The New Yorker, 22 July 2019
  • With its dreamlike blues and grays, Sell By looks more pensive than gloomy.
    — Beandrea July, The Hollywood Reporter, 22 July 2019
  • Zack figures pensive means Go right ahead, dude, tell me more — lots more.
    — Bart Bull, Spin, 8 Aug. 2023
  • Her drawing of the Earth humanized the globe with a pair of pensive eyes.
    — Mike Snider, USA Today, 23 Apr. 2025
  • But that too turns pensive, and the clock returns to business with the opening music.
    — New York Times, 22 Apr. 2020
  • The former made for a neat closure; the latter provides a more open, pensive end.
    — Shirley Li, The Atlantic, 11 Oct. 2019
  • His last few releases have been somber and pensive, so this is a night shift in sound and energy.
    — Preezy Brown, VIBE.com, 9 Aug. 2024
  • Eakins might have pushed his look to an extreme, so some scholars have seen the figure as sad, pensive, and spent.
    — Brian T. Allen, National Review, 12 June 2021
  • Here, Doyle’s prose reads like Lydia Davis at her most arch and pensive.
    — Annie Berke, Washington Post, 28 Aug. 2023
  • Carter and her band deftly recast the song as a pensive ballad that exudes a melancholic air.
    — George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 14 Sep. 2023
  • Socolow, pensive about it all, pinched a corner of cranberry scone.
    — B. R. Cohen, Longreads, 13 Jan. 2026
  • Something about the scale of the imagery used in his education did not sit well with the pensive teen.
    — Keyaira Boone, Essence, 20 Mar. 2022
  • Her expression is at once nervy and pensive, the scholar and the militant in full and equal view.
    — Hazlitt, 4 Sep. 2024
  • The statue depicts a pensive Marx in a frock coat stepping forward with his left foot.
    — Deutsche Welle, USA TODAY, 13 Apr. 2018
  • Between them stands a woman in a pensive pose, and on the left side of the trio is a smaller standing figure.
    — Teju Cole, New York Times, 12 Sep. 2023
  • At least the postgame locker room, where his smart and pensive answers the past month have brought perspective and calm to the team.
    — Shawn Windsor, Detroit Free Press, 25 Feb. 2018
  • But Giroux’s tone was much more pensive when speaking to the media on Monday.
    — Julian McKenzie, New York Times, 27 Apr. 2026
  • Ava takes herself for a pensive solo walk in comically wide pants.
    — Jessica M. Goldstein, Vulture, 29 May 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pensive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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