contemplative

Etymology

From Old French contemplatif, from the participle stem of Latin contemplāre.

adj

1. Inclined to contemplate; introspective and thoughtful; meditative.
   Compared with the greatest poets, he may be said to be the poet of unpoetical natures, possessed of quiet and contemplative tastes. But unpoetical natures are precisely those which require poetic cultivation. This cultivation Wordsworth is much more fitted to give, than poets who are intrinsically far more poets than he. 1873, John Stuart Mill, chapter 5, in Autobiography
2. Pertaining to a religious contemplative, or a contemplative religious orders, especially the Roman Catholic varieties.
3. Relating to, or having the power of, contemplation.
   contemplative faculties
4. (medicine, psychiatry) In a phase of mental activity in which one begins to recognize and acknowledge the maladaptiveness of someone's behavior (such as own's own, or that of a family member or friend); usually with reference to substance use.
   Coordinate term: precontemplative

noun

1. Someone who has dedicated themselves to religious or philosophical contemplation.
   Like the white page that surrounds the darkness of each letter you are reading here, eternity surrounds each heartbeat, and as the contemplative watches his breath, he can move out of time through the doorway which opens in the interval between each heartbeat. 1981, William Irwin Thompson, The Time Falling Bodies Take to Light:Mythology, Sexuality and the Origins of Culture, page 10
   The contemplative must not expect exotic feelings, visions or heavenly voices; these did not come from God but from his own fevered imagination and would merely distract him from his true objective …. 2009, Karen Armstrong, The Case for God, Vintage, published 2010, page 112