HSK 6 · Verbs

沉思 chénsī “to ponder” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 沉思 means

  1. to ponder
  2. to contemplate
  3. deep thought
  4. contemplation
  5. meditation

How to say 沉思

  • Pitch chart of the second tone: rises from mid to high, 3 to 5 on the five-level scale沉chén2nd tone, rising
  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale思sī1st tone, high and level

沉思 in a sentence

  1. 他坐在窗前沉思。

    Tā zuò zài chuāng qián chénsī.

    He sat by the window, deep in thought.

    Sentence by WillyChina

  2. 听了这个问题，她陷入了沉思。

    Tīng le zhè ge wèntí, tā xiànrù le chénsī.

    On hearing the question, she fell into deep thought.

    Sentence by WillyChina

How 沉思 is built

Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

The character 沉 (chén) with each of its parts in a different colour
沉chénto submerge
  • 氵water form of 水 · shuǐ
  • 冗excessive · rǒng
The character 思 (sī) with each of its parts in a different colour
思sīto think
  • 田field · tián
  • 心heart · xīn

Memory aidA head 田 (once a drawing of the skull) above the heart 心: to think.

How to write 沉思

沉 7 strokes · 思 9 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

沉思 (chénsī) stroke order chart: each stroke of the characters in the order you write them
Stroke order chart for 沉思 (chénsī). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 沉思

Words with 沉

沉默chénmò · silent沉闷chénmèn · oppressive沉重chénzhòng · heavy沉着chénzhuó · calm and collected深沉shēnchén · deep沉淀chéndiàn · to settle

Words with 思

意思yìsi · meaning没意思méiyìsi · boring有意思yǒuyìsi · interesting不好意思bùhǎoyìsi · to feel embarrassed思考sīkǎo · to reflect on思想sīxiǎng · thought反思fǎnsī · to reflect on构思gòusī · to conceive (an idea or plot)思索sīsuǒ · to ponder思念sīniàn · to miss

More words: Thinking & Talking

嘲笑cháoxiào · to mock承诺chéngnuò · to promise澄清chéngqīng · to clarify陈述chénshù · to state迟疑chíyí · to hesitate传达chuándá · to convey吹牛chuīniú · to boast吹捧chuīpěng · to flatter

FAQs

沉思 (chénsī) means “to ponder” or “to contemplate”. It is an HSK 6 word.
Say it chénsī: chén with a 2nd tone, then sī with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 沉思 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type chensi with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 沉思 from the suggestions. Typing chensi into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
沉思 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences written by WillyChina. Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.