excogitate

1 come up with (an idea, plan, explanation, theory, or priciple) after a mental effort; "excogitate a way to measure the speed of light" [syn: invent, contrive, devise, formulate, forge]

2 reflect deeply on a subject; "I mulled over the events of the afternoon"; "philosophers have speculated on the question of God for thousands of years"; "The scientist must stop to observe and start to excogitate" [syn: chew over, think over, meditate, ponder, contemplate, muse, reflect, mull, mull over, ruminate, speculate]

English

Etymology

From Latin excōgitāre, from ex- + cōgitāre ‘think’.

Verb

1. To think over something carefully; to consider fully; cogitate.
   • 2007: Did he ponder the harmony of the spheres? Certainly not: celestial spheres were first excogitated decades or more after Pythagoras' death. — MF Burnyeat, ‘Other Lives’, London Review of Books 29:4, p. 3
2. To come to a conclusion through reason or careful thought.

   After many years of study, he excogitated a solution.

cogitate, contemplate, contrive, develop, educe, evolve, give thought to, invent, mind, perpend, ponder, puzzle out, reason out, sort out, study, think about, think out, think over, think through, think up, weigh