To use your mind to form ideas, make decisions, or remember things. It can also mean to have an opinion or belief about something.
From Old English 'þencan' meaning 'to conceive in the mind, consider, imagine.' It is related to Old High German 'denken' and German 'denken' with the same meaning. The root is very old and appears across many Indo‑European languages connected to thought and memory.
The same root that gives us 'think' also connects to 'thank'—originally about holding someone kindly in your thoughts. Thinking isn’t just cold logic; historically it included remembering, imagining, and feeling. The word itself hides a fuller picture of what minds do all day.
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