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pensée

French, noun/pɑ̃.se/

pensée is a French feminine noun meaning “a thought (first attested 1176 in Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, ed. A. Micha, 5246)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a feminine singular of pensé. The French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) defines it as “Toute opération de l’esprit, de la conscience”.

What does pensée mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininea thought (first attested 1176 in Chrétien de Troyes, Cligès, ed. A. Micha, 5246)

  2. 2

    femininereflection, meditation, faculty of thinking (late 12th century)

  3. 3

    feminineworry, concern (late 12th century)

    Estre en molt grief pensée; estre en mout grant pensée de (aucun).

  4. 4

    femininethe mind as the seat of thinking (c. 1200)

  5. 5

    feminineobsoleteamorous attachment (c. 1200)

  6. 6

    femininemanner of thinking (c. 1215)

  7. 7

    femininean idea coming up in one's mind (c. 1220 in Anseïs de Carthage, 332)

  8. 8

    femininethe guiding idea of a decision made or one's will (c. 1274 in Adenet Le Roi, Berte, 1644)

verb

  1. 1

    femininefeminine singular of pensé

Source: English Wiktionary, French section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How French dictionaries define it

noun: 1. Toute opération de l’esprit, de la conscience. 2. Esprit ; réflexion. 3. Façon de penser, tour habituel, tendance des opérations intellectuelles chez tel ou tel individu ou chez telle culture. 4. Résultat des opérations de l’intelligence.

noun: 1. Plante ornementale aux fleurs veloutées roses, jaunes ou violettes de la famille des violacées. 2. (Invariable) Couleur violet pourpre d’une variété de cette fleur.

The definition in the French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), in French.

Source: French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of pensée

  • pensées plural

Source: English Wiktionary and French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

How do you pronounce pensée?

  • /pɑ̃.se/
  • \pɑ̃.se\
  • [pɑ̃.se]

Sources: English Wiktionary, French Wiktionary (Wiktionnaire) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.

English words that translate to pensée

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is pensée in French?

pensée appears 55 times per million words in written French.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).