pensively

1. 1.

   in a pensive manner

   “pensively he stared at the painting”

Questions about pensively

What does pensively mean?

pensively means "in a pensive manner".

How many syllables are in pensively?

pensively has 4 syllables and divides as pen-si-ve-ly under the regular spelling rules. It is not in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, so that comes from how the word is written rather than from a recorded pronunciation, and no stress or phonetic transcription is claimed for it.

Is pensively a common word?

pensively is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.