introspect means to engage in introspection.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, introspect ranks #3,297 of 14,361 for Most Ingenious Words, #7,180 of 14,444 for Most Exacting Words.
introspect is pronounced /ˌɪntɹəˈspɛkt/.
Why “introspect” is a great word
To examine one’s own thoughts, feelings, and motives. From Latin intrōspectus, past participle of intrōspicere ("to look into"), from intro- ("within") + specere ("to look at"), first recorded in English 1675–85 as a back-formation from 'introspection'. Unlike 'observe', which fixes its gaze upon the external world, or 'retrospect', which casts its eye over the receding past, 'introspect' turns the lens inward upon the living present of the self. It is the weight of a fingertip pressing gently on a bruise, the scent of old paper rising from a journal opened in silence, the warmth of a forehead resting against a cool window as the self becomes both watcher and watched—a private archaeology of the soul conducted in silence, beneath the noise of the world.
Etymology
From Latin intrōspectus, past participle of intrōspiciō. By surface analysis, intro- + -spect.
verb
- To engage in introspection.
- To look into.“Second, to say that something is introspectible, that we can introspect it, is not to imply that we are in fact aware of it. What's more, I haven't claimed that we even can introspect all the thoughts we have, only that we can introspect that we have two important sorts of thoughts.”
- To examine by means of type introspection.“DynamicMBeanFacade uses Java's reflection API to introspect the managed resource and discover data type information for attributes.”
Words closest in meaning
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