thinker

From Middle English thinkere, equivalent to think +‎ -er. Compare West Frisian tinker (“thinker”), Dutch denker (“thinker”), German Denker (“thinker”), Danish tænker (“thinker”), Swedish tänkare (“thinker”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪŋ.kə(ɹ)/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈθɪŋ.kɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪŋkə(ɹ)

thinker (plural thinkers)

1. One who spends time thinking, contemplating or meditating.
   • 1972, “Thick As A Brick”, Ian Anderson (lyrics), performed by Jethro Tull:

     The doer and the thinker
     No allowance for the other.

2. An intellectual, such as a philosopher or theologian.
   • 2020 December 8, Michiko Kakutani, “Obama, the Best-Selling Author, on Reading, Writing and Radical Empathy”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN:

     From his studies of these thinkers and activists, Mr. Obama took what he called the “Niebuhrian” lesson that we can have “a cleareyed view of the world and the realities of cruelty and sin and greed and violence, and yet, still maintain a sense of hope and possibility, as an act of will and leap of faith.”

3. (slang) The brain; the mind.
   • 2011, Arthur Kornhaber, Rosie's Miracle: A Novel, page 271:

     "Well, I tried to do like you and grandfather say; don't use my thinker, use imagination."

4. (slang) A poser; a conundrum that requires some thinking.
   • 1997, "How to Fire a Rifle Without Really Trying" (King of the Hill TV series, season 2 episode 1)

     HANK: The NRA is a Washington D.C. based organization. Are you telling me you support Washington D.C.?
     DALE: That's a thinker.

• rethink